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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The Exodus 

FROM DEATH. 



Sermons i l Concerning those who have 
Fallen Asleep." 



By 
REV. JAMES HAMILTON HALL, D.D. 



u But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concern- 
ing those who have fallen asleep; that ye sorrow not, even as 
others, who have no hope." / Thess. 4: 13. 



1903 

PRE88 OF MARSHALL & BRUCE CO, 
NASHVILLE, TENN. 



CfcPTMGHT, MO^ 

BY 

J. H. HAIX. 













THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

!UL 15 1903 

[\ Copyright Entry 
*LASS(\ ^ XXc. No. 

copy k 



PREFACE 



THIS volume is published for the comfort 
of the bereaved. Everywhere they may 
be seen in mourning, sorrowing for their 
loved dead. As they long to hear and know 
all they can "concerning those who have fallen 
asleep," these sermons are specially adapted to, 
and designed for, them. 

The sermons, as treating the same general 
topics — Death, the Resurrection, the Future 
State — are unavoidably alike. Moreover, 
they were prepared at different times, without 
regard in the prepamton of one sermon to the 
contents of the others, and with no design of 
publication together — these facts also account 
for their similarity. Trusting that they may 
do good, despite their defects, they are pub- 
lished. If bereaved hearts, "sorrowing in 
hope," are comforted by them, the author's 
object will be accomplished, and his labor 
rewarded. 

J. H. H. 



CONTENTS. 



i. 

The Biography of Man 7 

Texts: Gen. v: 5, 31. 

II. 

The Message of Triumph. 31 

Text: Rev. i: 18. 

III. 

The Salutation of the Risen Lord 47 

Text: Matt, xxviii: 8, 9. 

IV. 

Going Forth Against Death and the Grave 67 

Text: Hose a xiii: 14. 

V. 

Death, a Sowing for Immortality 82 

Text: 1 Cor. xv: 43. 

VI. 

The Victory Over Death 91 

Text: 1 Cor. xv: 54. 

VII. 

The Monumental Stones. _ 115 

Texts: Josh, iv: 9, 20-22; Matt, xxviii: 6. 



6 Contents. 

VIII. 

The Continuity of Life _ 132 

Text: Rev. xxii: 11. 

IX. 

Personal Identity Beyond the Grave.. _. 141 

Texts: John xx: 16; 1 Cor. xv: 20. 

X. 

The Great Meeting in the Heavenly Zion 161 

Text: Isa. xxxv: 10. 

XI. 

The Glory of Heaven 185 

Texts: 1 Kings x: 4-7; Ps. lxxxvii: 3. 

XII. 

Heaven on Earth 203 

Text: Rev. xxi: 1-4. 

XIII. 

Eternity _ __ 222 

Texts: Isa. lx: 19, 20; Ps. xlix: 19. 

XIV. 

Hope for Infants Fallen Asleep.. 242 

Texts: 1 Thess. iv: 13; 11 Sam. xii: 23 



The Biography of Man. 



"And all the days that Adam lived were nine hun- 
dred and thirty years: and he died." — Gen. 5: 5. 

"And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred 
seventy and seven years: and he died." — Gen. 5: 31. 

WHAT a difference there is between 
artificial and natural life — between 
written and real life! What a dif- 
ference between life as the artist makes it, and 
life as man lives it! The one is fiction, the 
other truth. And here truth is stranger than 
fiction. Fiction is what genius with glowing 
pen represents life to be; truth is what life 
really and matchlessly is. The one is a copy, 
life-like it may be, but only a breathless picture; 
the other is the living, breathing original. 

What I shall say of life will be a copy ; the 
Scriptures from which I shall speak is a copy, 
and, as inspired, a faultless copy. Back of 
what I say, and back of the Scriptures from 
which I say it, is the reality — the pulsing, 
throbbing reality — life, and with it, its no less 
real, and its dreadful, correlate — death. 



8 The Exodus From Death. 

Summing up these records of life, and ex- 
tracting their sense, it may be stated in a few 
words — it is : He lived, and he died. This 
is the brief history of man — his biography. 
Whatever his achievements may have been — 
however large a place he may have filled on the 
stirring arena of the world — however long his 
allotted years, extending though they miay into 
centuries, yet, after all, his works, and his 
fame, and his years are gathered up, and com- 
pressed into a few words — he lived, and he 
died. 

What a mystery is life to him who looks only 
on the surface of things — to him who takes 
things as they seem. 

"Only the same old story, told in a different strain, 
Sometimes a smile of gladness, and then a stab of 

pain, 
Sometimes a flash of sunlight, again the drifting 
rain. 

"Only the same old story, but oh! how the changes 

ring, 
Prophet and priest and peasant, soldier and scholar 

and king, 
Sometimes the warmest handclasp leaves in the palm 

a sting. 

11 Sometime in the hush of even, sometime in the mid- 
day strife, 

Sometime with devil-like calmness, sometime with 
passion rife, 

We dream it, live it, write it, this weird, wild story 
of life." 



The Biography of Man. 9 

In the Scriptures before us we have an in- 
spired biography of man. If seeming tautol- 
ogy be allowed, it might be stated as the biog- 
raphy of human life. We are not to study any 
particular life — not Adam's nor Lamech's ; but 
human life — your lif e, my life, all life. It is 
the life of life before us. 

In this biography of man we have two lead- 
ing topics — Life and Death, and these suggest 
a great inference — Immortality. 

I. LIFE. 

He "lived." Lived what? His life. 
Whence and what is life? God creates life, 
and man exercises it. God gives it, and man 
makes it. It is God-given, and man-made. 
As God gives it, it is potential life ; as man 
uses it, it is accountable life. As from God it 
is imposed ; as exercised by man it is voluntary. 
We are to study life on the human side — as 
man's. 

1. What life is. Let us see what constitutes 
life. He "lived." How ? What is it to live ? 
What is in this every-day thing we call life? 
It is one of the commonest things around us, 
yet one of the most profound mysteries. From 
analysis we see that it is thinking, acting, in- 
fluencing. Then, to live is to think, act, 
influence. 



10 The Exodus From Death. 

Life in thought. This is inner, unseen, 
mental life. It is germinal, motive life. It 
is tihe walk of thought in its inner world — 
soul world. In this realm, where none but 
God can see, we have a classification of human 
thinking, and hence of the inner life. It is a 
wide, all-embracing classification. It groups 
all thought under the godly and the ungodly. 
Godly thought has God in it. "My meditation 
of him shall be sweet," says godly mind. "God 
is not in all their thoughts," is said of ungodly 
minds. In one of these we have living life, in 
the other, dead life. 

This life in thought is embodied in words. 
Hence our words are to be judged as containing 
thought-life. We read : "Every idle word that 
men shall speak, they shall give account thereof 
in the day of judgment. For by thy words 
thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou 
shalt be condemned." Here we see words 
appearing before God. They are immortal as 
the bodies of accountable thought. They are 
the man's mental offspring. They have souls. 
They may die for a while. The word may 
return to silence as it was, and the thought to 
man who gave it. But words are to rise again. 
It may be asked, "How are dead and forgotten 
words to be raised up ?" The immortality of 



The Biography of Man. 11 

departed thought secures the resurrection of 
dead words. It may also be asked, "With what 
body do these dead words come ?" There will 
be given to every returning thought, every 
thought summoned to the judgment bar of God, 
its own risen word. 

Life in acts. This is overt life. It is hand 
and feet life. It is life in the deeds of the 
body. Then to live is to do. It is to put 
inner life into outer forms. It is the man 
putting his life, putting himself into change- 
less deeds. Hence the significance and so- 
lemnity of what we do. What the wind does, 
what the horse does is nothing — what a man 
does is momentous. How we shudder, some- 
times awestruck, at the irrevocable act! No 
wonder. Our life is in it — made public in 
it — made unchangeable in it. Acts are life's 
expressions of itself — life's revelations of 
itself. They are the soul's likenesses — itself 
put in the form of deeds. Acts as revelations 
of the soul, as its genuine, inerrant correspond- 
ents, are true and authentic representatives of 
the life. Take away God, take away the Bible, 
take away the pages of conscience, and still the 
responsible man remains photographed forever 
in his deeds. Abel and Judas are still living 
in their deeds — the one in his righteousness, 



12 The Exodus From Death. 

the other in his treason — and they will ever 
continue to live in them. 

Life in influence. That is, life beyond us, 
in others — life in life. None of us "liveth 
unto himself. " Life, as a whole, is one as the 
sea, yet many as its multitudinous particles. 
The sea of Galilee is like a community of life. 
Touch the water at any point, and you touch 
all the sea. A subtle pulsation spreads from 
shore to shore. This is influence — the touch 
of life with life. You note the ceaseless, and 
strange unrest of the sea. Go on it ; as soon 
as you pass the bar, you feel that you are on 
the bosom of a breathing monster. It is the 
ocean. How immense it is. But touch any 
point of the water, and you touch the whole 
vast ocean. Influence is that touch that 
spreads through the oceanic life of the world. 
The most obscure, or farthest isolated man 
living, is yet in touch, inevitably so, with all 
life. And this influence is not confined to 
contemporary life, but extends down succeed- 
ing life to the end of time. Nor does it then 
stop, but goes on and on, touching all the life 
of the eternal world. Then to live at all — 
alas, to live at all, is to live finally in the gath- 
ered immensity of life, in the weal of the 
Upper, or the woe of the Under world, and that 



The Biography of Man. 13 

for ever and ever. How overwhelming the 
thought ! 

2. Life, in its quantity. That is, all of it. 
Life in the mass — gross life. How much 
there is in a man's life. Take a life of fifty 
years. It has over eighteen thousand days in 
it, four hundred and thirty-eight thousand 
hours in it, over twenty-six million minutes in 
it, and over one and a half billion seconds in it. 
Then such a life has in it millions of thoughts, 
acts and influences. The Bible contains over 
seven hundred thousand words. It would take 
over two hundred Bibles to hold life's thoughts, 
take tomes to hold its deeds, and its spreading 
influence would fill pages as wide as the hemis- 
spheres. Then think of its vast variety — its 
good and evil, lights and shadows, joys and 
sorrows, smiles and tears. Laughing and 
weeping are forever going on over all the world. 
What a huge volume is life, and what a medley ! 
What quantities are in it, and what vicissi- 
tudes ! 

But life in the moral, is like life in the 
natural sphere. It has its husks and refuse 
that must be sloughed and cast away. It has 
its bark, hull, chaff. And as husbandry in 
autumn separates and selects, divides the wheat 
and chaff, so biography selects its material, and 



14 The Exodus From Death. 

condenses life. God shucks life — keeping 
the shucks as good or bad in their way — and 
he gathers in his record the summary, in his 
garner the grain, of man's years. And as the 
condensing process in husbandry may go on 
further, giving us the extracted essence of 
grain, fruit and flowers, so, also, may we con 
dense life into its essence. 

3. Life in its quality. Here we have life 
as winnowed and assorted ; the thing as picked ; 
net life. Or, say quality in substance. Life's 
thinking is packed into one thought — life-long 
thought. It is one as having the same motive, 
heart-principle in it. One as having love or 
hate in it. Or one as having God or sin in it. 
God running through, and regnant in life's 
thinking makes it one in nature and continuity. 
There may be incidental and immaterial bark 
and chaff, but the reigning thought is one — 
godly or ungodly. 

Life's acts are all packed into one. They 
are all one life-act as coming toward, or going 
away from God. Or, one as going continu- 
ously up, or down. It is like a man ascending 
a mountain. He may reach levels, even 
declivities on the way, but it is one course up- 
ward ; or, in descending a mountain there may 



The Biography of Man. 15 

be flats, even acclivities, but the course is one, 
downward. 

Likewise, the life-influence is one. As the 
stream which has been drawing its waters from 
the bosom of the mountain — yea, many 
mountains and hills — and flowing for thou- 
sands of years, is one and the same river, so is 
life one. As the Mississippi — made of many 
tributaries — was in the days of the Red Man, 
afterward in the days of our fathers, and is 
now, the same river, so the ceaseless currents 
of influential life are foreveir one in their 
bosom-source, and in their nature as good or 
evil. 

This condensation and synthasis of being 
may go further, and give us the last and 
final result, which is simply — life. He 
"lived." Thoughts, deeds and influence 
unite in one ultimate product — life. The 
coalition of these elements of being — the 
union of these essential constituents, forms the 
compound we call — life. God has named it 
life. He "lived." This is the final sum- 
mary. How great, and how little it is ! What 
a paradox! How full, and how empty it is! 
How luxuriant, and yet how barren! How 
vast, varied and indifferent the quantity of life, 
and yet how solemn and fearful the quality it 



16 The Exodus From Death. 

makes! How redundant and profuse the 
verbiage, yet how intense and concentrated the 
interpreted significance — life ! How wide 
the field of activities and service, yet how 
meager the gathered crop of import — simply 
life! How long and tedious the hours, days 
and years — how lagging and wearisome — 
yet how short and tremendous the biography — 
he "lived" ! That is all ; but enough, alas, 
enough ! He "lived" has enough in it for end- 
less joy, or endless woe! It has God or sin in 
it — has heaven or hell in it 1 
Now see life's dark correlate : 

II. DEATH. 

He "died." What is it to die? What is 
death? Death is life's Sunset, life's Exode, 
life's Omega, life's dreadful Waterloo. Whose 
act is it. Man's and God's. Man's act. 
How? Is he not passive and helpless in it? 
And would he not live on if he could? Yes. 
But is not the inebriate helpless ? And would 
he not keep sober ? Yet intoxication, which he 
cannot help, is his act, and a sin. He brought 
on his helplessness. So death, as the effect of 
sin, as the inevitable liability voluntarily as- 
sumed in the sin-habit, is man's act. Hear the 
child crying to its sick father not to die: "Oh, 



The Biography of Man. 17 

father, deay f ather, don't die." He says : a My 
child, I cannot help it." Then, sighing deeply, 
he says : "But I brought it on — I sinned, and 
death is the wages of sin." Sin, the man's own 
act, takes his life. Who never sins, never dies. 
How strange that professedly sanctified, sinless 
people ever die! Strange, strange! It is 
anomalous — it is an effect without a cause. 
It is death without sin. Who ever heard of 
such a thing? 

Then, also, death is God's act. It is the 
natural penalty he has attached to, and inflicts 
on disobedience. God said to the first man: 
"In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt 
surely die." Death as a sequence of voluntary 
sin, is man's act, but as a penalty inflicted for 
sin, it is God's act. Therefore, death is an 
indirect, unintentional suicide, and it is an 
execution — both. 

The fable of the two knights gives us life and 
death as popular thought once conceived and 
illustrated them. Two knights meet. They 
are armed with lance and shield. They are 
eager for a combat. The foemen lock arms. 
It is a fearful conflict. It is a life and death 
struggle! And so evenly matched are they 
that the struggle goes on and on. Days pass, 
and still they are fighting; weeks and months 



18 The Exodus From Death. 

go by, and they are grappling still ; seasons roll 
away, and still the battle is on. Autumn is 
closing, with its sear and yellow leaf, and worn 
and exhausted the combatants stop by a brook 
to drink. It is an enforced armistice. One 
of them drinks. The other kneels, and lifting 
his visor to drink, shows his face. And lo, it 
is a skeleton ! It is death ! Life dries, "Alas, 
thou art death !" He hoarsely mutters, "Aye, 
verily; and thou art mine." Life expires, 
sinking on his shield. 

1. Death is the end of a sore struggle. 
Under existing conditions, war is the natural 
state of life. There is no peace. The indi- 
vidual and the race are forever battling for 
existence. It is a war of extermination waged 
upon life, and is from generation to generation. 
Take any view we may of life, and it is a strug- 
gle. Take the physical view: We see it is an 
organic battle. Physiology teaches that there 
is ceaseless war in the body. Its very organs 
are combatants, and in discharging their func- 
tions they war with each other. The ancient 
penalty, "Dying, thou shalt die/ 7 is a record 
and reality in our physical constitutions. Liv- 
ing is dying. Take the most essential organic 
process — breathing. The body cannot live 
without it. Yet breathing is a battle. It sus- 



The Biography of Man. 19 

tains, and it destroys life. It keeps alive, and 
it kills. The oxygen inhaled from the air in 
breathing, supports, and yet takes life in con- 
suming vital lung-tissue. Living is dying. 

Take the mental view of life. It is thought 
wrestling with the fears, difficulties, problems 
of the way. Food and raiment are indispen- 
sable necessities. We fear we may come to need 
them. The Saviour addressed this fear in 
universal man, when he said : "Take no thought 
for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for 
the body, what ye shall put on" — be not anx- 
ious about them. Still, as "bread is not always 
to the wise" under the disorder brought by sin, 
thought will be anxiously devising and plan- 
ning to provide against want. Then there 
are difficulties ahead. Thought struggles with 
the bridges and mountains fear has conjured 
up in the way. Also there are dark and deep 
problems that come up and press on us for 
solution. It is a grappling with clouds, and 
darkness, and mystery, and destiny — it may 
be, with God! Israel found out that in 
wrestling with a man for the preservation of 
his life, he was wrestling with the mystery of 
God. 

But especially under the moral view do we 
see life to be a struggle. It is a gigantic 



20 



The Exodus From Death. 



struggle. It is a wrestling — a hand-to- 
hand struggle. It is the soul meeting 
the trained, desperate, masterful champions of 
sin. It is the muscular gladiators of thought 
grappling on the inner arena of the soul. We 
read: "Our wrestling is not against flesh and 
blood, but against the principalities, against 
the powers, against the world-rulers of this 
darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wicked- 
ness in the high places." They are spiritual 
Anaks, Goliaths, and worlds of them. This 
moral conflict with the powers of evil is for 
soul sajf ety and existence — is for eternal life. 
It terminates with death. Then the lon^ 
battle of life is over. "Best," significant word, 
is now written on the soldier's coffin. 

2. Death is the close of a great probation. 
Not a legal, but a gracious probation. Only 
Adam and Christ were under the former. 
This probation involves a momentous test, and 
a transcendent opportunity. Life is a gracious 
test of man to see whether he will accept — not 
work out — righteousness already provided in 
the gospel of the grace of God ; and thus to see 
whether he will prefeir good or evil, truth or 
error. To see what his character-determining 
choice will be. Death closes the great experi- 
ment. The momentous trial is like the rope- 



The Biography of Man. 21 

walker across the Niagara River below the 
falls. The rope extends from the American 
to the Canadian side over the yawning chasm. 
Great crowds gather on both sides of the river 
to witness the daring venture. Some think 
that he can walk the rope, others that he cannot. 
It is a perilous, dreadful experiment. He will 
succeed, and gain the plaudits of the multitude, 
or he will fail, and fall into the seething waters 
below. Such, and more so, is the hazardous 
experiment of human probation. It has 
heaven above, and hell beneath it. Multitudes 
of angels and demons are looking on. Life is 
"made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, 
and to men." If it succeeds, there will be joy 
and shouting in heaven ; if it fails, hissings and 
groanings in hell ! In death we land in one or 
the other of these realms — in heaven or hell. 

Then what a transcending opportunity is in 
life. How great, and grand, and glittering its 
prizes! Truth, and glory, and God are held 
out to us — put in our reach. They are gained 
or lost in death, and that forever. We have 
but one life, which is one chance. Mark it — 
we have one life only — that gone, opportuni- 
ties close forever. 

3. Death is the, spoliation of life. It sacks, 
plunders life, and razes it to the ground. 



22 The Exodus From Death. 

Death utterly despoils life. Hence the divine 
warning : "And this know, that if the goodman 
of the house had known what hour the thief 
would come, he would have watched, and not 
have suffered his house to be broken through. 
Be ye therefore ready also." Death conies 
like a thief, a midnight burglar. He takes 
away the possessions. Solomon says: "Naked 
shall he return and go as he came, and shall 
take nothing of his labor, which he may carry 
away in his hand." He goes empty-handed — 
without a cent. Say he is a millionaire; see 
all his millions go glimmering from him as the 
Boatman of Death with muffled oars bears him 
away. And death takes away the associates of 
life. We leave them, or they leave us. 
Neighbors, friends, kindred, family all taken 
away. Alone, alone, without a single human 
companion, the soul passes into the mysterious 
Beyond. Then at last death takes away the 
mortal house. The body is taken and de- 
stroyed. Our Lord's description of this final 
blow of death is graphic and fearful: "The 
rains descended, and the floods came, and the 
winds blew and beat upon the house; and it 
fell ; and great was the fall of it I" All mortal 
hopes go down in the mortal house. The spirit 



The Biography of Man. 23 

is hurled out, a homeless wanderer — out into 
the unknown ! Nothing — not a thing, is left. 
He "died." We see an eagle, or a lion dead, 
or a magnificent temple fallen in ruins, and we 
move on, with only a passing thought. We see 
a dead man. We stop. What a corpse, what 
solemn remains ! What august ruins we have 
in a dead man ! They are more than a dead 
eagle or lion, more than a fallen Pantheon or 
Colosseum. Over this breathless form, this 
fallen temple of life, the lips of passing pil- 
grims are heard, saying : 

" Shrine of the mighty, can it be 
That this is all remains of thee ?" 

Let us see if it is all. This leads us to a 
great inference. 

III. IMMORTALITY. 

The biography would be abrupt, incomplete, 
inexplicable without this inference. Let us 
study it — study it as an inference, not as a 
Scripture doctrine. It is a Bible doctrine 
clearly and abundantly taught; but we will 
lay the Bible aside for the time. We have 
come to the goal of life, and the mystery of 
death. Here we are at the end of a strange 
journey — at the close, it may be, of a stormy 



24 



The Exodus From Death. 



career. It is night. How deep the silence, 
how intense the darkness of the grave! How 
lone and desolate the battlefield when the sun 
has gone down! What wrecks are scattered 
where the soldiers of life have fallen! This 
is the end, dreadful end, and we can go no 
further. There is no way; and it is too dark. 
Here "the wise, the scribe, the disputer of this 
world" stand bewildered and mute. Here the 
night-winds take up the ancient dirge: "Man 
dieth, and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up 
the ghost, and where is he?" Yes, where is 
he ? This is the great question age has trans- 
mitted to age unanswered. It is the wail of 
nature over her lost ones rising and forever 
"crossing the harmonies of God." 

Here we stand at the end of life — stand 
over a corpse — Life's corpse. ISTow we will 
not take a man of doubt, and ask him what it 
means — get his inference. Eor he is biased 
against the truth. Nor will we take a Chris- 
tian — a helmet-crested child of hope, and ask 
him to draw his conclusion. He might be 
biased in favor of the truth. We will take a 
man of common sense, a reasonable man, with- 
out bias or prejudice, and let him give his 
judgment. 

We bring our impartial referee, and he 



The Biography of Man. 25 

stands over a dead man — stands at the end of 
the strange drama of life, lie thinks. Tie 
looks back, and around, and turns to look forth, 
but there is no forth. He again looks baek — 
back at the dead man's life. What does he <> 
What strikes him? 

lie notes life's brevity. Say it is fifty, or 
seventy years. How short that is! He looks 
at the old oak, nothing but a tree, and it has 
been standing over a hundred years. He 
thinks of the eedar — the eedar of the moun- 
tain, which has been living a thousand years. 
How is this? he asks. Are the trees of more 
account than man; He sees the old hill von- 
der, which is but a heap of dust, and there it 
has stood for ages the emblem of longevity. It 
is bald with years, but patches of lingering 
forests are round its rugged brow, and, like the 
loeks of a giant, have been waving in the winds 
of centuries. Hut here is man, more, infinitely 
more than the trees or old hill, fallen and dead! 
Now he looks up at the sun that has been eom 
ing forth like a strong man to run a raee morn 
ing after morning sinee time began. And 
JOinder in his eolestial pathway he still lives 

and careers, strong, erect, age-defying. But 

here is man, made in the imago o( God man 
greater than the sun, out down and dead in a 



26 The Exodus From Death. 

few years ! Man who has taken the sun in his 
God-like mind, and weighed it as a commodity, 
or sported it as a toy — aye, who has gone be- 
yond the sun, and gathered in his exploring 
thoughts the immense constellations, and 
brought them down on a map, studied and 
named them — he who has done all this is dead, 
and his celestial playthings are living on ! Our 
observer is amazed, confounded, and says, How 
can this be ? "What does it mean ? 

Again looking back, he sees life as a frag- 
ment. He sees it as a part, mutilated and in- 
complete. Man has been not only first to fall 
— to fall in mid-careesr — but he has fallen 
with an unfinished life. The very shrubs and 
trees mature their foliage and fruit ; but man's 
plans are all shattered in his untimely death. 
Look at his lofty aims, his gorgeous dreams, his 
grand hopes — look at them all blasted in the 
bud, and scattered round his corpse ! Yes, our 
observer sees man lying dead with the book of 
life's lessons still open and unread before him ! 
He sees him lying still holding the implements 
of toil in his pale hand of death, and life's task 
left undone! He sees life as an artist lying 
dead before the canvas, with brush and palette 
still in hand, and the picture unfinished! He 
sees life as a sculptor fallen before the marble 



The Biography of Man. 27 

block, with chisel still grasped, and the statue 
just begun! With a deep sigh our observer 
says, Is this life ? And is this all of it ? 

Still, again, looking back, he sees life's mys- 
teries. The things too hard to understand, and 
that perplex and stagger us. He sees in its 
mysteries inequality. Apparently it is a dis- 
tribution of good and evil without regard to 
merit, reason or law. He sees the rich and the 
poor, the happy and the miserable, the strong 
and the weak, the well and the sick, the noted 
and the unknown. He sees life's injustice. Its 
oppressions and wrongs. He sees "the tears of 
the oppressed, and that they have no comfort- 
er," and sees "on the side of their oppressors 
power." He sees "the just unto whom it hap- 
peneth according to the work of the wicked, and 
the wicked to whom it happeneth according to 
the work of the righteous." He sees the most 
perplexing forms of injustice in mo'ral inver- 
sions. Sees right at the bottom, and wrong 
on top — innocence weeping, and guilt laugh- 
ing — truth fallen, and error enthroned. He 
sees Moses a fugitive, and Pharaoh a king; 
Paul in bonds, and Agrippa in royal apparel; 
Washington with his heroes, barefoot and eat- 
ing bread, and King George with his courtiers 
"faring sumptuously every day" ; sees Jefferson 



28 The Exodus From Death. 

Davis in prison, and Andy Johnson in the 
White House! Our reasonable, level-headed 
man is bewildered! His thoughts waver. 
His head reels! He steadies his staggering 
mind. Now, recovering himself, he looks back 
and sums up the whole story — it is a span, 
fragment, mystery. This is life! 

Now we ask our man to speak. We say to 
him, Draw your inference from all this — tell 
us now what you have to say. Man of reason 
answer — unbiased witness, speak. After 
what you have seen, tell us what you think. 
Solemnly and deliberately, he says: If this is 
life, and this all of it, then it is a black, insolv- 
able enigma — it is a huge sham and fraud — 
it is a mammoth lie! But we say to him, 
Leave off the "if/' and give us a direct affirma- 
tion one way or the other — give us the con- 
clusion of reason. He says, It is one and 
irresistible. Every rational hypothesis, every 
legitimate process, leads to one conclusion — 
resistless, inevitable, imperative conclusion — 
and that is : This is not, nor can it be y all of 
human life. This is his verdict. 

If this conclusion be an error, it is in the 
very image of truth — if it be a dream, it is 
the grandest of dreams. Blessed be God for 
the conclusion. Life must go on. With a 



The Biography of Man. 29 

beginning, an initial, so auspicious and great, 
it must have a continuance ; with plans of such 
moment and scope all shattered, it must have a 
resumption; with mysteries so dark and cruel 
hanging over it, it must have a vindication. 
Its days must extend on, its plans be completed, 
and its mysteries cleared away. This must be, 
according to our witness, or reason is a fool, 
facts are fictions, conclusions are myths and 
illusions. 

Then the grave in life's biography is not so 
dire after all. It has its compensating lessons. 
Its wrecks, fragments, ruins are prophetic. 
We misjudge death. 

"We do thee grievous wrong, O, eloquent, 
And just, and mighty death !" 

Thou art a seer in dark disguise, and the 
grave thou hast dug is an adytum of prophecies. 
grave, thy gloom, to the child of God, is the 
darkness before day, promising a glorious Mor- 
row; thy wrecks are fallen autumn leaves, 
fertilizing hope, and presaging an eternal 
Spring; thy fragments are frame pieces, tim- 
bers scattered, awaiting and foreshadowing an 
immortal Edifice; and thy dust, strange dust, 
is phenix-ashes with the slumbering potency of 
renewing and deathless Life. Yes, O grave, 



30 The Exodus From Death. 

thy ruins - — the blasted remains of human life, 
are a gloomy, yet grand apocalypse of a life 
to be. 

What is the lesson brought out by the dis- 
cussion ? What is the great lesson for us from 
the sermon ? If we get it, we will be wiser to 
live, and fitter to die. What is that lesson? 
With another life and world before us, we can 
see, it would seem everybody could see, that, 

"They build too low who build beneath the stars." 



The Message of Triumph. 31 



The Message of Triumph. 



"I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, 
I am alive for evermore, Amen ; and have the keys of 
death and of hell."— Rev. 1: 18. 

NOTHING has been heard from any otf 
the dead. How strange, remarkably 
strange, that no one of all the race who 
has left the world has been heard from! Not 
one. How deep and long the silence between 
the living and the dead. For over six thousand 
years they have been passing in a continuous 
stream into the silent Beyond, and of all the 
quintillions gone, not one has been heard from. 
Wot one has spoken a word, or written a syl- 
lable back. The silence of the dead has been 
unbroken. And this silence has reigned re- 
gardless of the popular and universal longing 
to hear from the dead. So great is this long- 
ing that it has given rise to Spiritualism. The 
medium pretends to receive messages from the 
spirit-world — from the loved dead. Ah, this 
is just what the poor, aching heart wants, and 
it seizes the delusion. If communication were 



32 The Exodus From Death. 

possible on wires stretched along the stars, or a 
cable laid in the depths of space — if on either, 
news could pass to and from the other world, 
how the messages would go and come, day and 
night. But the thing is impossible — it is an 
idle dream. The silence between the two 
worlds can never be broken by any human 
device. Yet it has been broken by divine Lips. 
Here in the text we have a message from beyond 
the grave. It is from One who lived here, died 
and passed over. John has a vision of the 
risen Lord, standing alive on the eternal side, 
and hears him speak. The text is what he says. 
John writes the message, that the people of 
God may study it, and learn the great tidings 
sent back to them. Let us study this Message 
of Triumph sent back, and see what is in it. 

I. HIS TRIUMPH OVER DEATH. 

In the Message the Lord announces his 
Triumph over Death. How appropriate that 
he should look back after the dreadful conflict 
is over, look back as he stands victorious on the 
eternal shores, and say : "I live" — live despite 
the power of death. Hear him : "I am he that 
liveth, and was dead." The struggle is over, 
and looking back across the battlefield, he an- 
nounces his victory. The great woirds, no 



The Message of Triumph. 33 

doubt, are still reverberating through the cav- 
ernous realms of death. He went down into 
the domains of death to measure arms with the 
king of terrors — to let the monster try his 
power on him — his utmost power. 

There are three ways in which death could 
exert its power on the life of Christ. They 
are: To separate him from the Father, to 
destroy him, or to confine him. That is, the 
aim could be alienation, extinction, or confine- 
ment, Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Bri- 
gade" is a thrilling picture. It is six hundred 
English charging the works of the Eussian 
army. They 'rode forward, and forward into 
the valley of death — onward they rode, cannon 
on the right, and cannon on the left, volleyed 
and thundered — on they rode amidst a storm 
of shot and shell — still on their sabres flashed, 
piercing and breaking the line of Cossack and 
Eussian, and as the enemy reeled, shattered 
and sundered, the Brigade disappeared in "the 
jaws of death." Where are they? They rode 
back, but not the six hundred. As Christ 
descends into the shame, misery and mystery 
of death — as he disappears in its omniverous 
jaws, is his life lost? Is he destroyed by the 
powers of death? He cries from beyond, "I 
am he that liveth, and was dead." 



34 The Exodus From Death. 

The life of Christ was tried by the alienating 
power of death. Separation is the idea in 
death — the work of death. Christ's life had 
been, and was by union with the Father — 
eternal union. He said, "I live by the Father." 
Break this union, and death's dreadful work is 
done. The power of death was exerted to the 
uttermost to sever this union. This was by 
suffering. Suffering always tries — tries 
every tie. Christ is nailed to the cross, and 
crucified. All the pain that malignity could 
inflict on his body, and all the more awful 
agonies that justice meted out to his soul as 
the Lamb of God, were borne by him. It was 
amidst this untold anguish, the fathomless woes 
of the cross, that he cried : "My God, my God, 
why hast thou forsaken me ?" Alas, was the 
blessed and eternal union with the Father sun- 
dered then \ Were they torn apart as he went 
down under the mountain of human guilt? 
No. See ! He rises — rises still one with the 
Father, saying, "I ascend to my Father, and 
your Father." 

And the life of Christ was tried by the 
destroying power of death. Death terminates, 
extinguishes, annihilates life. Not the prop- 
erties, but forms of life. Christ claimed self- 
existent life. He said: "As the Father hath 



The Message of Triumph. 35 

life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to 
have life in himself." This life was put before 
death — put in the hands of death. As Job's 
immortal hope was put in Satan's hands for 
trial, so the life of Christ was put in the power 
of death. Shame was used on it. He is the 
Holy One from the bosom of the Father, and 
all the angels of God worship him ; but see him 
in the hands of men — see them crown him 
with thorns, and put a robe on him, and cry in 
derision : "Hail, king of the Jews." See them 
"spit in his face, and buffet him." And this, 
the veiled king of glory! Shame kills men. 
Sorrow was used on him. In his Messianic 
vision Isaiah sees him as "A man of sorrows, 
and acquainted with grief." David, speaking 
for him in the Spirit, cries : "The waters are 
come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, 
where there is no standing. I am come into 
deep waters, where the floods overflow me." 
Were there ever uttered words of more awful 
significance than these : "Let not the water-flood 
overflow me, neithdlr let the deep swallow me 
up" ? Think of sorrow like Niagara floods 
whelming his soul ! Think of sorrow vast and 
deep like an ocean swallowing him up ! Sor- 
row crushes men's life out. Terror tried him. 
Hear him say: "Many bulls have compassed 



36 The Exodus From Death. 

me; strong bulls of Bashan beset me round." 
As in Job's place to answer for sin, how much 
more must he have felt that "The terrors of 
God do set themselves in array against me." 
When in the Garden, in prayer, he came face 
to face with the enormity of sin — the sin he 
was to expiate, Mark says: "He began to be 
sorely amazed." His holy soul was awestruck, 
paralyzed by the fearfulness of sin! Terror 
has killed men. Then the sword was used. 
Ndt of steel — the spear pierced his body ; but 
it was the sword of T*uth, Justice, that pierces 
the soul. "Awake, O sword, against my shep- 
herd, and against the man that is my fellow, 
saith the Lord of hosts : smite the shepherd." 
See the awful, gleaming sword of Justice sur- 
charged with the wrath of Almighty God 
against sin, go, with its unutterable agonies 
into his holy soul ! He bows his head in death. 
Is it all over ? Is he destroyed ? Look beyond 
and hear him saying, "I am he that liveth." 

Also, Christ's life was tried by the confimkg 
power of death. By the strength of its prison 
gates, bars and walls. If his life cannot be 
torn from the Father, nor destroyed, let it be 
held and bound in prison confinement forever. 
We have the signs of this invisible attempt, in 
the efforts to secure his natural grave. After 



The Message of Triumph* 37 

his crucifixion and burial, the chief priests and 
Pharisees told Pilate that "the deceiver had 
said, while he was yet alive, after three days I 
will rise again." Pilate commanded them to 
make the sepulcher sure. They sealed it, and 
set a watch to guard it. But on the thi'rd 
morning "the angel of the Lord descended from 
heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, 
and sat on it." Then "the keepers did quake, 
and became as dead men." The tomb was 
vacant. He was gone. "It was not possible 
that he should be holden of death." He had 
said in the majesty of God: "I lay down my 
life, that I might take it again." He had taken 
it again. 

In Christ, Life and Death met. They are 
the two great opposing forces of the universe. 
Which will prevail is the question and problem 
of the ages. In Christ the test was made. It 
was exhaustive. All the power of death was 
expended on his life. All its strength, and 
terror, and i"age, and chains were exhausted. 
Beyond the field of blackness and blood he 
stands in victorious life, saying, "I am he that 
liveth, and was dead." 

II. HIS IMMORTALITY. 

The Lord also announces in this message his 
immortality. The immortality of his Human- 



38 The Exodus From Death. 

ity. He says: "And behold, I am alive for 
evermore." Is there anything selfish in this 
"I," and this "alive for evermore" ? Does he 
mean to say, I am safe over — yon are left 
behind — take care of yourselves ? No, no ! 
When David met the Philistine, Goliath, and 
slew him, and cut off his head, and looked back 
to the army of Israel over the battlefield, did 
he say, or think: "I, David, have triumphed 
by my prowess — now give me the glory" ? No. 
He felt that Israel had won in him — that in 
him the Israel he represented had triumphed. 
Hence we read : "And Israel arose and shouted, 
and pursued the Philistines." 

When Christ undertook the conflict, he did 
it as the Representative of his people. He 
stood for the army of the living God before the 
champion of the powers of darkness. He took 
the flesh and life of man to lose, or save and 
immortalize it. In his Divinity he was always 
supreme. In It, he was "the Lord which is, 
and which was, and which is to come, the Al- 
mighty." In his Humanity he appeared for 
his people. On Calvary he stood as the great 
High Priest, with all the names of his people 
on his Breastplate, and he went down in death 
with them on it, and rose with them on it. 
Then they are in this "alive for evermore." 



The Message of Triumph. 39 

In the Immortality of the risen Christ, re- 
deemed Humanity is represented in heaven. 
A representative human body is in heaven, for 
Jesus was "the firstfruits of them that slept." 
A human body, immortalized, has gone on 
high; a human body is on the throne of the 
universe ! When Esther went as queen to the 
throne of Assyria, all Jews felt it — they were 
all moved that Jewish blood was exalted to 
reign. What an honor it was! That Christ 
Jesus has carried our nature on high ought to 
move the world. And in his exalted body is 
the pledge of the resurrection and immortality 
of all his people. 

And in the Immortality of Christ redeemed 
Life is represented in heaven. Jesus had not 
only a human body, but a human life. He has 
carried that on high. It represents the life of 
redeemed humanity. Esther carried Jewish 
feeling on the throne. Here she still loved and 
cared for her people — there were none like 
them in all the Assyrian empire. Christ took 
on high his human sympathy — not selfish, but 
holy and perfect. We read that "He is touched 
with a feeling of our infirmity." He lives on 
high for us — loves us, and cares, and inter- 
cedes for us. Over all the vast empire of God 
there are none for whom he feels as he does for 



40 The Exodus From Death. 

us. What a thought ! Our Brother — amaz- 
ing thought! on the throne! And our life 
is in his life — "because I live, ye shall live 
also." 

It follows also that in the Immortality of 
Christ the immortality of the redeemed becomes 
a prospective Fact in heaven. How strange it 
would be — how unthinkable — to have in 
heaven in the glorified Christ a sample, speci- 
men of something never to be — an earnest 
without anything to follow. He must be de- 
posed, or his people live representatively in 
him. That the people of Grod could fail to 
appear in glory is impossible. Satan had the 
temerity to go up before the Almighty, and 
challenge Job's religion. He said: "But put 
forth thine hand now, and touch all that he 
hath, and he will renounce thee to thy face." 
This is not sound theology. Religion, which 
is spiritual life, depends on Christ, not on our 
whims. "The just shall live by faith." The 
issue of miscarriage was up in Adam and 
Christ. In the one it went adversely, in the 
other triumphantly. The issue is now closed. 
In the triumph of Christ, his people triumphed. 
Immortality as a fact — their immortality, too 
— may be seen in heaven. Here it is in the 
voice of the living Christ. 



The Message of Triumph. 41 

And here is an "Amen" attached to these 
emltanl words. It is like a huge adjunct, a 
massive buttress. It means, "Be it so." As 
OUr mighty Lord stands in glory, and looks 
back over the triumph of his earthly work, and 
Bees his people redeemed forever in his victory 
— redeemed in Him — as he sees this, then 
with all the God-given authority of his Being, 
and solemnity of Eternity, he says, "Amen;" 
It is God's Almighty, "Be it so." It is Eter- 
nity's irrepressible, swelling Sanction : It 
ought to Ik* so — it shall be so — it is so. 

III. HIS AUTHORITY IN THE REALMS OF DEATH. 

We also have in this message sent back these 
words: "And have the keys of hell and of 
death" — thai is, death and Hades, or the under 
world. The "keys" are a symbol of authority. 
Our Lord said to his apostles while with them, 
addressing Peter: "] will give unto thee the 
keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatso- 
ever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in 
heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
earth shall be loosed in heaven." Here the 
keys represented the authority conferred Oil 
the apostles 'as inspired, and as infallibly 
guided by the Eoly Spirit. The "keys" in 
possession of our risen Lord imply his author- 



42 The Exodus From Death. 

ity in the realms of death. His announcement 
teaches that he conquered and controls death 
and Hades. Not only does his Life represent 
his people, but the power in his hands is wield- 
ed for them. He rules death for them. Peal's 
painting, "The Court of Death/' is striking 
and touching. Amidst the ravages of death 
around him, is an old bent, white-locked saint 
approaching the grave. He is supported by 
faith and hope. He meets the monster Death, 
saying: "O death, where is thy sting? O 
grave, where is thy victory V 9 

Christ holds the keys of spiritual death. It 
was said in prophecy that he would "proclaim 
liberty to the captives (of sin), and the opening 
61 the prison to them that are bound." He 
taught, saying: "If the Son therefore shall 
make you free, ye shall be free indeed." He 
liberates the captives of sin. He breaks the 
bondage of enslaved souls. If he turns the 
keys to let a sinner go free, all earth and hell 
cannot prevent his liberation. If he does not 
unlock the prison of sin to free the captive, all 
others around and below cannot free him. He 
is supreme in the realm of spiritual death, and 
none can say to him, "What doest thou V 9 

He holds the keys of natural death. He 
controls death in all of its hideous forms, and 



The Message of Triumph. 43 

lawless agents. The question of the subjection 
of death is settled. Uncertain, fortuitous, law- 
less as it is — a prowling midnight burglar 
though it be — yet, it is under unerring direc- 
tion in all of its forms. It is under the scepter 
of the risen Lord. Job believed, and taught 
this: "Seeing his days are determined, the 
number of his months are with thee, thou hast 
appointed his bounds that he cannot pass." If 
it was true in Job's day, before death had been 
actually invaded and conquered, su'rely it is 
true now. Hear what great things are said to 
him who makes God his trust : "Thou shalt not 
be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the 
arrow that flieth by day ; nor for the pestilence 
that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruc- 
tion that wasteth at noonday. A thousand 
shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy 
right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee." 
Think of our Lord ruling the unseen breath of 
every pestilence, and the course of every arrow. 
Think of the missiles of death, thick as hail, 
sweeping the battlefield, mowing down thou- 
sands, and yet every one of them under the rule 
of our Lord ! In raging epidemics, and amidst 
the shot and shell of the field of strife, thev 
fall only as he wills or permits. He is Lord of 
death. 



44 The Exodus From Death. 

Christ also holds the keys of the grave. It 
is the prison of the body. The bereaved heart 
has often sung in tears : 

"How long- shall Death, the tyrant, reign, 
And triumph o'er the just?" 

When death held the keys, he turned them on 
the tomb forever. He thought when dust went 
back to dust, that was the end of it. His in- 
scription over the gateway of the grave was, 
"All hope abandon — ye who enter here." 
But thanks be unto God, Christ has wrested 
the keys from death, and says, I will unlock 
the grave by and by. He says: "The hour is 
coming in the which all that are in the graves 
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall 
come forth." How long some of the dead have 
been in their graves! Their bodies have been 
there the prisoners of centuries. The patri- 
archs and prophets — holy men before and after 
the flood — went down into the grave, and there 
they have been sleeping as the ages have gone. 
Think of how long they have been burying! 
And none of the innumerable host who have 
gone down in the grave have come up. You 
have your dead. How precious their memory, 
their dust, their resting-place! You went 
home with an aching heart from the grave. 



The Message of Triumph. 45 

And in your lonely, desolate hours, how often 
have you cried : "How long, O Lord God, how 
long?" Be of good cheer. Remember who 
holds the keys. And remember his words, 
great and blessed words: "I will ransom them 
from the power of the grave; I will redeem 
them from death; O death, I will be thy 
plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction; 
repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." That 
is enough. We take his words. We rest in 
them. 

Still, again, here is Hades. The Lord holds 
the keys of the under world. He refers to the 
place of departed spirits — the lost and saved. 
He confines the impenitent spirits — he keeps 
the sainted spirits. Dives is confined — a 
great and impassable gulf imprisons him. 
"Them that sleep in Jesus" are kept. He will 
unlock Hades for the judgment, and he will 
bring back the spirits of those who sleep in 
him on the resurrection day. 

With the text before us — with this great 
Message in our minds and hearts, we can live, 
and die. We can trust our bodies and spirits 
with him who holds the keys of death. Look 
at the Hand holding them — it is the Hand of 
Calvary, the blessed Hand that was nailed to 
the cross — the pierced Hand ! Look at the 



46 The Exodus From Death. 

Hand of dying Love, now sceptered with power 
and glory ! Look at it, and you will not dread 
to die. We ought to sing that old song of vic- 
tory all through life, and on our bed dying, still 
sing it : 

" He dies! the friend of sinners dies! 
Lo, Salem's daughters weep around; 
A solemn darkness veils the skies, 

A sudden trembling- shakes the ground. 

" The rising God forsakes the tomb! 
Up to his Father's court he flies; 
Cherubic legions guard him home, 
And shout him welcome to the skies. 

u Break off your tears, ye saints, and tell 
How high our great Deliverer reigns; 
Sing how he spoiled the hosts of hell, 
And led the monster Death in chains. 

"Say, 'Live forever, wondrous King! 
Born to redeem, and strong to save!' 
Then cry, 'O, death, where is thy sting?' 

And ' Where's thy victory, boasting grave ?' " 



The Salutation of the Risen Lord. 47 



The Salutation of the Risen Lord. 



'•And the j departed quickly from the sepulchre 
with fear and great joy; and did run to bring- his dis- 
ciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, 
behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they 
came and held him by the feet, and worshipped 
him."— Matt. 28: 8, 9. 

THE resurrection of Christ is a sill-truth, 
Together with its antecedent counterpart 
— his death for our sins — it supports 
the entire superstructure of Christianity. 
Without it "preaching" is vain, "faith" is vain, 
"hope" is vain — aye, the dead have "perished." 
Before the stupendous fact it was night — a 
long and dismal night, in which God spoke and 
promised, and faith heard and believed. After 
the fact it was dawn — the day of God, and 
truth, and hope. The grave of Christ, we may 
say, is the dividing line between the earth's 
ages of darkness, and ages of light — "The 
people that walked in darkness have seen a 
great light." The resurrection of Christ is the 
one solitary break in the hitherto uninterrupted 
and universal reign of death. He was the 



48 The Exodus From Death. 

"firstfruits of them that slept." Well might 
the angel invite to his open grave, saying, 
"Come, see the place where the Lord lay." 
Vacated grave! What volumes its emptiness 
spoke ! It had in it enough to move three 
worlds — to cause alleluiahs in heaven, joy on 
earth, and groanings in hell. 

Here are devoted women who have come 
early to the sepulcher. They had waited, 
mournfully waited, for the hour. They had 
looked back to their Lord while alive, and to 
the joys and hopes he had inspired — looked 
back to him who was now dead, and to the joys 
and hopes that had gone down with him into 
the grave! How natural, how human, that 
they should think through all those dark hours 
of the brighter hours, and the blessedness they 
had known with him, and to ask themselves the 
sad question, are those hallowed times spent 
with him gone forever ? Sad, strange question. 
One of the heart's questions. Their feelings 
were similar to a man's who, after long years, 
visits the home of his childhood. The old 
house is crumbling, or may be gone — the loved 
forms that moved through its halls are gone — 
the sweet faces and voices that made it home, 
"the dearest place on earth," are gone — all 
gone, "some to the bridal, some to the tomb" — 



The Salutation of the Risen Lord, K 

the r >ld yard, with itn white walks, it-; familiar 
flowers and trees, is a waste, overgrown with 

weed;-. 1 1 is Bad heart looks back, and asks, 

Whal of all the past life and joy of that home? 
Are they to be no tnorei Are they all over, 
and gone forever? Is so much precious life, 
and so much happiness, to be eternally buried? 
Bitter, sadly, Intensely bitter thought! With 
thoughts like these, die women reach the sepul 

eh re. How amazed are they to Bee the stone 

rolled away! How startled to see an angel, 
and hear him say: "He is not here; be is 

en." "They knew not as yet the Scriptur 
that he should rise, from the dead." They 
hurry away, "with fear and great joy," to tell 
the disciples. Oh the way Jesus meets them 
rind lays, "All hail." What thrilling words! 
They are wonderful as the words of the live 
Christ they thought they wore to Bee no more. 
Wonderful as a salutation. tt swept away 
gloom, and rekindled heavenly hope. It 
for more than the two women Immediately ad- 
dressed* The "all" must be for all oar.-. How 
the glorious salutation flashed backward, to 
illumine the dark ; dead past, and forth, to light 
up the coming future. Lei as study what is 
before and after the of salutation* 



50 The Exodus From Death. 

The theme is: The Salutation of the Risen 

Lord. 

I. THE BURIED PAST BACK OF THIS 
ALL HAIL. 

Back of these thrilling words all was dark 
and dead. Memories sadder for their very 
sweetness carried the heart backward. The 
Lord of life, and love, and hope, lay buried in 
Joseph's tomb. It was the blackest, yet dearest 
spot in all the world to these mourning hearts. 
For three days and nights they had thought of 
nothing but the dead. Backward they looked. 
Their all was buried in that lonely grave. 
Now r , may we not make that grave, and that 
review of it, emblematic ? A buried Past lies 
behind all life, and backward it is ever looking 
— sadly looking. What musings fill the heart 
as the visions of the long ago arise. "When 
shall we all meet again ?" it sighs. Strange 
questions come up, and will not down. Will 
the past ever come back ? Must memory be 
filled forever with its mouldering corpses ? 
Has human life passed and gone, no resurrec- 
tion? We are to see. 

1. The Buried Past. It is like a vast ceme- 
tery. It is full of the dead. It is like a 
winter scene in nature — a deathscene — the 
vales, hills, trees covered with dead leaves. We 



The Salutation of the Hisen Lord. 51 

look back of us, and see nothing but graves, 
graves, graves! From infancy, life began to 
die, and we have been burying it all the way up. 
Our past is one long sepulchre, filled with the 
dust of dead existences — dead times, scenes, 
and hopes. Not simply dead people. Our 
dead ones, it is true, are there. But the death 
of the body is the minor, the death of the life 
the major concern. A long vault of fragments 
is behind us — life-fragments, life-corpses. 
Indeed, all the past of time is a heap of dust — 
a vast Acropolis — an omniverous grave. All 
things are forever dying. Nature is an im- 
mense death-chamber, her voices are all funeral 
wails, her forces are all busy sextons, her days 
and years are hearses bearing with their sable 
plumes our dead away. Dying, dying, dying! 
It is always saddening to look on graveyards. 
The bright countenance falls, and joyous laugh- 
ter is hushed when we see the lone place where 
the dead are sleeping. This is the reason we 
sigh when we look backward. The dead are 
there. The past is a vast burying-ground. 

2. The dead buried in the Past. All life's 
precious memories, all it has lost, all of its de- 
parted, are its dead. All of our past is our 
dead. Yes, all the by-gone is our dead. Past 
time. The days, months, seasons, and years 



52 2Tie Exodus From Death. 

that have fled like the rushing winds, are our 
dead. Time is nothing till it is taken up and 
incorporated in rational experience — then it 
is a part of our life. Past scenes. The Meri- 
bahs and Elims of the way — the Bochims and 
Shushans — that have all receded from sight, 
are our dead. Past associates. The forms, 
faces and voices that have passed away, are our 
dead. Precious dead! How often the break- 
ing heart tries to dream them to life, but only 
to awake to the stern reality — they are dead. 
Oh ; the tears, the funeral wails, the heart-sob- 
bings that fall on these heedless graves! Past 
joys. Life's leaping and flowing joys, that, 
like birds of passage, have flown — too sweet 
to last — these are our dead. And past hopes. 
The once bright halos crowning the future, now 
wrecked and scattered fragments, these are our 
dead. Yea, all life-things gone are our dead. 
Our Past is like a huge skeleton with the ashes 
of all the Gone in his spectre hands that lie 
folded forever on his pulseless bosom! Our 
life and all it has lost are the dead buried in 
the past. 

3. The state of the dead buried in the Past. 
Is it hopeless ? What are the inscriptions 
nature and reason have written over the great 
sepulchre of the By-Gone? They have in- 



Tlie Salutation of the Risen Lord. 53 

scribed in ebon letters upon all the tombs of the 
past, "Eternal, Eternal." Despair, like a 
hopeless Priestess, sits over the grave of the 
Past scattering with her icy fingers the dust of 
the dead, and chanting with her pale lips the 
dirges of Nevermore! Nevermore! Can 
past time come back? Never, never. Can 
buried forms gone back to dust return? Rea- 
son says, No, never. Can departed joys ever 
thrill us again ? Can wrecked hopes ever be 
restored? Gone, all gone forever. Tell the 
old man to bring back his past — be young 
again, and he will shake his head. Tell him to 
call back his loved dead, and he will sigh in 
silence. Tell him to recall the joys and hopes 
of his youth, bring them back, and he will sadly 
say: "The torch, when once wasted, Oh, how 
can it burn ?" Study the thought of the world 
given in its literature — the thought standing 
back of the "All hail" of the risen Lord, and it 
is full of the dark and dismal confessions of 
hopelessness and despair. With its tombs back 
of it, and its inevitable deaths ahead of it, it- 
cries: "Is life worth living?" Even Job, sit- 
ting amidst the freshly made graves of his 
children, fortune and health, cried out: 
"Wherefore is light given to him that is in 
misery, and life unto the bitter in soul?" 



54 The Exodus From Death. 

What a world it would be if it had never heard 
this glorious salutation, "All hail." What 
gloom lies back of these words ! What accumu- 
lated, concentrated darkness covered Joseph's 
tomb! As the comprehensive emblem of all 
our deaths and graves, how intensely black it 
was! "Darkness covered the earth" when he 
died, and Faith "mou'rned and wept" over his 
grave. Alas for the blackness of darkness cul- 
minating in the midnight gloom that settled 
on Joseph's tomb! Dead Past. Look at its 
black epitaphs: "Forever and Forever!" 
Dead forever! 

II. THE RISEN FUTURE TO COME AFTER 
THIS ALL HAIL. 

Jesus said, "All hail!" What pregnant, 
startling words ! They fell on these sad, 
gloomy hearts like flashing suns! They are 
filled with the power of risen, immortal truth. 
They glow and burn with the volcanic fires of 
living truth. They gush from lips that once 
were dead — from the victorious lips of risen 
Life. The words must have sent a thrill of 
good cheer through all the dark, subterranean 
regions of the dead Past, and flashed forth 
radiation lighting up the heavens to come. 
Alive! Who alive? The Lord who died for 



The Salutation of the Risen Lord. 55 

Death, and rose for Life — who was the Death 
of death, and the Life of life. He "was deliv- 
ered for our offences, and raised again for our 
justification." When he arose the Life — 
potential Life — of all the dead stood up, and 
the Light of the world's breaking and brighter 
day issued in his "All hail." Wonderful, won- 
derful words of life ! They bring to view 
things to come, a risen Future, with its "glory 
and immortality." 

1. The Dependence of the Dead Past on 
Christ. "Asleep in Jesus" are sweet and 
blessed words. Are they to be applied only to 
the bodies of the saints? May they not reach 
farther? May they not cover, in a sense, all 
the immense field of death? Even the wicked 
dead sleep in and under his power — subject 
to him. The risen Lord says : "All power in 
heaven and in earth is given unto me." "Life 
in him" is a profound truth. Is it to be re- 
stricted to souls ? In the sense of his resurrec- 
tion power, all the dead — souls, bodies, things 
— are "in him." 

The dependence of the dead past on Christ is 
inferred from his relation to all things. "As 
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be 
made alive." (1 Cor. 15: 22.) This covers all 
the race, to all of whom Christ became related 



56 The Exodus From Death. 

by his assumption of humanity. Again: "By 
one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, 
and death by sin." And this one man, Adam, 
is called "the figure of Him that was to come," 
that is, Christ. (Rom. 5: 12.) Here we are 
taught that as Adam's relation to the race as a 
federal head involved all men in his fall — they 
all died in him; so, likewise, Christ's relation 
to fallen humanity by his incarnation secures 
to all men — "the just and the unjust" — the 
benefits of the resurrection. And we are 
taught that the indirect influences of his Head- 
ship touch nature. We read: "For we know 
that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth 
in pain together until now. And not only they, 
but we ourselves also, who have received the 
firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves 
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adop- 
tion, to wit: the redemption of our body." 
(Rom. 8: 22, 23.) Does not this teach that 
nature — here personified — as well as re- 
deemed man, expects and longs for a resurrec- 
tion ? As there was a participation by creation 
in the ruin of the fall — as "nature felt the 
wound" of sin — so may there not be a partici- 
pation by her in the benefits of the redemption ? 
Also this inference that the dead past is de- 
pendent on Christ is from his office. By ap- 



Tlie Salutation of the Risen Lord. 57 

pointment and conquest lie is Lord of all — 
Lord of the realms of death — reigns in all 
sin's and death's universal grave. His office 
makes him "head over all things" — brings "all 
things under his feet." We read: "To this 
end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, 
that he might be Lord both of the dead and liv- 
ing." He died that he might extend his au- 
thority into the realms of death. His dying 
was an invasion of the dominions of death. 
He came up with the "keys" of death. The 
dead are in his trust. He said the people given 
him were in his trust to be "raised up again at 
the last day." But his trust is co-extensive 
with his office — as wide as his universal au- 
thority. He rules death, and watches over all 
its ravages. Its immense prey is hidden away, 
yet guarded by his omnipotent hand. He 
keeps in sacred trust all the dead dust given 
him, to be delivered up in the last day. 

2. The Far-reaching Influence of Christ's 
Resurrection. How far did its power extend 
— present and prospective power ? How 
much life did it contain for the past? How 
much darkness did it lift from the world's heart 
and graves ? Did it extend only to those ador- 
ing hearts at his feet ? Did it affect only the 
fate of the pious dead and living ? Did it stop 



58 The Exodus From Death. 

with all the dead race? He said, "All hail." 
Was that "all" simply a part of the salutation ? 
or did it mean a number, or quantity? Who 
and what are addressed in that "all" ? Is it 
not limitless ? Let us hope that his resurrec- 
tion was without bounds in its indirect and 
ultimate influence — in the authority it secured. 
When Christ went down into the grave he 
touched Death in all its mammoth proportions. 
He laid his omnipotent hand on all its dark 
domains — its provinces, islands, seas, conti- 
nents, hemispheres. He gathered in his 
mighty grasp its greatest and least things — its 
mausoleums, and its moth-urns — its dust of 
dead kings, and its dust of dead sparrows — its 
ashes of departed empires, and its ashes of 
faded flowers. He arose with "all things" in 
his hands, to be brought up or not, as he wills. 
He went down to link his deathless Life to all 
the corpses of the world's Past. He went down 
to explore death's immeasurable caverns — to 
secure access to its hidden treasures, that he 
might finally make it disgorge its accumulated 
prey. And when he came up, he cried : "I am 
he that liveth, and was dead ; and, behold, I am 
alive for evermore. Amen ; and have the keys 
of the under world and of death." Indeed, 
his risen Life came up with ligatures that link 



The Salutation of the Risen Lord. 59 

all the dead Past to his victorious Arm. Its 
days, and years, and peoples, and joys, and 
hopes — all its dead — are linked to him. 
Then all the dead shall rise again when he wills 
it — all the Past come up out of its grave. 

3. The Great Restoration. The resurrec- 
tion of all the dead. What an immense awak- 
ening it will be! When he said: "All hail," 
he meant all — all the living, and the dead. 
This wonderful "All hail," as assuring them 
that he was alive, gave also assurance to them, 
and gives it to us, that as he had come back to 
life, so should there be a universal rising from 
the dead. 

All the dead race are to come back. Jesus 
said : "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour 
is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear 
the voice of the Son of God; and they that 
hear shall live." This was the spiritual resur- 
rection in salvation. Then he said: "Marvel 
not at this : for the hour is coming in the which 
all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 
and shall come forth ; they that have done good, 
unto the resurrection of life; and they that 
have done evil, unto the resurrection of damna- 
tion." (John 5 : 25, 28, 29.) The emphasis is 
on the "all." Not the good only; but the evil 
as well — all. The good and evil, the old and 



60 The Exodus From Death. 

young, the great and small, the rich and poor, 
the illustrious and unknown — all. The good 
of all the ages will rise — the countless hosts 
who have lived, and believed, and died — the 
hosts from Abel to the end of time, including 
infants, all of these, every one of them, shall 
come back to life. And the evil — all the diso- 
bedient of the children of men that have gone 
down into the grave without hope — "the kings 
of the earth, and the great men, and the rich 
men, and the chief captains, and the mighty 
men, and every bond man, and every free man," 
shall come back again. What a multitude will 
stand up — what teeming, swarming myriads 
will tread the earth on that day ! Think of the 
generations that have gone down into the dust 
— think of the population of the grave — its 
quintillions ! Thought fails to grasp the im- 
mense, countless hosts. But what is dearest to 
us, is: "Them that sleep in Jesus will God 
bring with him." They come back with him 
for their bodies. Not lost, but kept. At last 
brought back. Precious truth! Precious 
dead ! We shall see them again, by and by. 

It is usual to stop here. But the truth goes 
further, and let us follow it. There is to be 
more than a resurrection of the bodies of men. 

All lives are to come back. Christ will raise 



The Salutation of the Risen Lord. 61 

the dead lives of men. We had thought that 
past life was gone forever. How sadly have 
we looked back at the dear, departed days ! 
Are they to rise again? Have they souls? 
What is life? It is the incorporation of time 
— its days, scenes, influences — into rational 
thought and memory. This is the concrete 
phase of life. We can know no other. Life 
in the abstract — the principle, essence, the 
subtle soul of life, we cannot know. The plant- 
life, bird-life, escape the thought. This con- 
crete view of life has its illustrations. Look 
in the lower spheres. At the bottom we have 
vegetable life. This life appears in the taking 
up matter into vegetable forms. Still higher 
up we see life in the absorption of matter, and 
its transformation into animal bodies. So in 
the highest realm this phenomenon we call the 
essence of life appears in the incorporation of 
time and things into conscious knowledge. 
The man's physical life affords an illustration. 
As matter taken up into the body becomes a 
part of the physical constitution of the man, 
and is to come up immortal in the resurrection, 
so, also, may not time and things, taken into 
the mind by knowledge, becoming incorporated 
into the spiritual constitution of the man, re- 
appear after the resurrection as a part of the 



62 The Exodus From Death. 

immortal life ? The soul, the immortal man, 
in the world to come, will have no conscious life 
apart from its earthly past — no life except as 
constituted of earthly associations and knowl- 
edge. Immortal life consists in the soul's 
acquisitions in temporal experiences. Its 
days, scenes, trials, triumphs, associations, 
deeds — these are its life, and these are to 
come up and re-live in its life. If the man is 
raised up from the dead, his mortal experiences 
and knowledge will be raised up, for they are 
his life. 

This restoration of the life appears from the 
Scriptures. We read: "For God will bring 
every work into judgment, with every secret 
thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. 
(Eccl. 12: 14.) In these words we see life 
again, inner and outer, good and evil life, up 
before God. Again: "We must all appear 
before the judgment seat of Christ ; that every 
one may receive the things done in his body, 
according to that he hath done, whether it be 
good or bad." (2 Cor. 5 : 10.) Here we see the 
life brought back again in the deeds ; and note, 
that they are the deeds done in the body. Then 
as it is the deed's done in the body, it is the 
earthly life come back again. 

All experiences are to be restored. If the 



TJ\e Salutation of the Risen Lord. 63 

life is to come back, its feelings will come back 
with it. We are to re-feel the past again. Its 
joys and hopes, its sorrows and despairs, are 
to return. Indeed, we are taught that death 
does not intercept, nor change the life — the 
grave does not break its continuity — beyond, 
it is an eternal perpetuation of the same life. 
We hear as the dead pass over: "He that is 
unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is 
filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is 
righteous, let him be righteous still; and he 
that is holy, let him be holy still." (Eev. 22 : 
11.) 

The experiences of righteous life will be 
restored. The joys and hopes once felt will 
come back. In the resurrection experience of 
the righteous, there will be no sin. The 
Scriptures make this marked and miraculous 
exception. The experiences of sin here will be 
gone there. God says : "Their sins and iniqui- 
ties will I remember no more." When the 
christian dies and is buried, there are two 
deaths and burials. His body dies and is 
buried, and his sins die and are buried. His 
body is to rise again, but his sins are to have 
no resurrection forever. The Lord God has 
buried his sins in oblivion. Yes, it is life's 
blessed experiences that come back. Hear the 



64 The Exodus From Death, 

Saviour's words: "I say unto you, I will not 
drink henceforth, of the fruit of the vine ? until 
that day when I drink it new with you in my 
Father's kingdom." (Matt. 26: 29.) Did he 
not mean that the joy symbolized by the wine, 
was to be suspended for a time, then resumed 
in his Father's kingdom thereafter ? It is not, 
yet it is, the same wine. It is not, yet it is, the 
same joy. It is the purified soul of joy. It 
is not the same hope come back, yet it is the 
same. It is the old hope disembodied — di- 
vested of its earthliness. The "restitution of 
all things, spoken by the mouth of all the holy 
prophets, since the world began," is the prom- 
ise. The "all things" must include the spirit- 
ual joys and hopes of redeemed humanity. 

The experiences of wicked life will come 
back. The sorrows and despairs once felt will 
be felt again, and with a hundredfold intensity. 
This is the teaching of Scripture, of philosophy, 
of common sense. Take a man under convic- 
tion of sin. Then old sins come back — all 
the sins of the past — and cannot be shaken off. 
Hell is but eternal conviction of sin — all the 
sins of time come back, and fixing their tortur- 
ing fangs forever in the soul. This is the law 
of life and retribution. "They shall eat of the 
fruit of their own ways, and be filled with their 



The Salutation of the Risen Lord. 65 

own devices." (Prov. 1: 31.) "Woe to the 
wicked ! it shall be ill with him ; for the re- 
ward of his hands shall be given him." (Is. 3 : 
11.) The experiences of the wicked now are 
the beginnings, the ominous shadows of the 
awful realities to come. What a resurrection 
it will be to them! A resurrection of misery! 
The resurrection of the soul, the deathless soul, 
of misery ! 

Two reflections follow the discussion: 
First, let the saints rejoice — let them sing 
for joy. They have enough beyond, in the 
risen life and immortality, to make their lives 
melodious with joy. Many have been their 
losses, some of them great and crushing, and at 
last they are to lose their bodies in the grave. 
But these losses are to be restored. They are 
to get back their bodies glorified, and all that is 
good in their past, and needful for their future 
blessedness will be given back forever. When 
Israel was told that his long-lost son, Joseph, was 
alive, he said: "It is enough." So when their 
long-lost, blessed treasures are given back to the 
saints, given back alive, they will say: "It is 
enough — it is enough." 

Second, let the wicked fear. What a restora- 
tion awaits them! They may think that their 
past is gone — may think their sins, many sins, 



66 The Exodus From Death. 

some of them crimes, are all buried forever in 
the grave of the by-gone. Their sins may be 
buried, and great stones rolled upon them, the 
graves sealed 2 and forgetfulness set as a watch, 
yet they will come up again. Fearful resurrec- 
tion it will be ! Let the wicked tremble — 
tremble in view of the wrath of their risen sins, 
and the wrath of God. "Prepare to meet thy 
God," O wicked man — prepare to meet thy 
sins in the Hand of an angry, avenging God ! 



Going Forth Against Death and the Grave. 67 



Going Forth Against Death 
and the Grave. 



"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; 
I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be 
thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: 
repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." — Hos. 13: 14. 

THE resurrection of the dead is a cardinal 
doctrine in the Christian creed. It is 
basal and essential. It follows the res- 
urrection of Christ as secured by, linked to, and 
inhering in it. The dead must rise, or Christ's 
rising is without meaning or effect. Besides, 
the doctrine of future awards depends on it. 
Sin is committed in the body. Will its penalty 
be inflicted on the soul only? Human law 
brings the person of the criminal into court, 
and, if found guilty, punishment is inflicted on 
the person, not the spirit merely — the body is 
imprisoned or hung. Will God's law do less ? 
As sinners, at last, will be punished in the 
bodies that sinned, so will the saints be blessed 
in the bodies that served. Paul's body will, 



68 The Exodus From Death. 

and ought to be there, with its scars of faith- 
fulness. 

The resurrection is also essential as linking 
the two states together. Death terminates 
mortal life, and consigns its dust to the prison 
house of the grave. Death puts a dreadful, 
impassable chasm between the two states of 
being. The resurrection is necessary to the 
continuity and identity of personal being. 
Without the body we will be in future only half 
ourselves — we will be in part, if not altogether, 
different beings. The resurrection links the 
two states. 

The resurrection is the doctrine of the text. 
Let us study specially the last words of it: 
"Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." 
When the Redeemer goes forth to ransom his 
people from the grave, nothing will stop or turn 
him back. His ears will be closed against 
every dissuasion. He will be relentless, inex- 
orable in determination. The theme is : Going 
Forth Against Death and the Grave* 

I. IN SIGHT OF THE END. 

The day to which He has looked, and for 
which He has waited, is at hand. The final 
stroke is to be made. The last enemy is to be 



Going Forth Against Death and the Grave. 69 

destroyed. The conquest of sin is to be fin- 
ished. The sight of the end moves the Ee- 
deemer with holy, determined ardor. 

The undertaking of Christ was the recovery 
of man from sin. Sin wrested the race from 
God. It sprung a new and momentous issue. 
It opened a grand, yet awful theatre of service. 
Who will enter the field, and undertake the 
stupendous mission against sin ? The recovery 
of lost men affords a field worthy of Divine 
aspiration, and sufficient for the display of 
Divine glory. Christ enters the field, saying, 
"Lo, I come." 

What is the extent of sin's work — its domin- 
ion over men ? We must see this to know what 
Christ is to do. Sin has possession, not only of 
the world, the entire race, but of the entire man 
— soul and body. Micah said, "The sin of my 
soul." Paul cried: "Who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death?" Then the re- 
covery from sin extends to both soul and body. 

The work of redemption is twofold. It is 
the payment of the price, and the recovery of 
the possession of the redeemed. Christ in his 
substitutional death pays the price. "He suf- 
fered, the just for the unjust." "He redeemed 
us by his blood." Then he gets possession, in 
part, in the salvation of the soul, and com- 



70 The Exodus From Death. 

pletely in the resurrection of the body from the 
grave. 

The conquest of sin was not made on Cal- 
vary; but the grounds were there laid, and 
authority there secured for it. The conquest 
of sin is not complete in the salvation of the 
soul. David, with a saved soul, said : "I shall 
be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness." 
Paul said: "We groan within ourselves, wait- 
ing for the adoption, to wit: the redemption 
of our body." The conquest of sin is not com- 
plete till "this corruptible shall have put on 
incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on 
immortality" — till "death is swallowed up in 
victory." 

The text passes over the bloody scene of Cal- 
vary, and the deliverance of souls from sin; 
passes over all the spiritual battlefields of the 
ages, and brings us to the new and final conflict 
over the bodies of the slain. The resurrection 
will close the long war with sin — finish the 
victory over it. The Redeemer looks upon the 
field. The enemy lies in the last entrenchment 
in the grave. There the centuries have sent 
the innumerable bodies of his saints. Death 
holds them. To raise them is the last mighty 
Act — the Act to crown the whole — the tran- 
scendent Act to complete his mediatorial work. 



Going Forth Against Death and the Grave. 71 

Now, so near done, will he stop ? With the 
prize of victory in reach, will he turn back? 
Remembering the ravages and ruins of sin, will 
he have any mercy on it? Looking on death 
as the monster that has wrung from his people 
sorrows, tears and anguish — looking on him 
as an ancient, horrible, defying usurper, hold- 
ing captive the dust of his people, will he not 
deal in relentless fury ? His determination 
increases, his purpose is intensified, as the end 
approaches. Now, the end has come. Death 
is in his last ditch, dispossessed of all but the 
dust of his slain. That dust is dear to the 
Redeemer ; it is in his trust ; he is to "raise it 
up again at the last day." He comes "in the 
clouds of heaven with power and great glory." 
What a grand conception of the charge upon 
death is Paul's. He says: "The Lord himself 
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with 
the voice of an archangel, and with the trump 
of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise." 
He storms death! "O grave, I will be thy 
plagues; O death, I will be thy destruction." 

II. THE LONG DISHONOR. 

The Redeemer will be relentless in the resur- 
rection day as he is going forth to terminate 
the dishonor of sin. Sin is dishonoring. It 



72 The Exodus From Death. 

dishonors God in all its work, especially in its 
last dark deed of death — its crimes culminate 
in the shame of the grave. The grave is a re- 
flection on God, and a reproach on his people. 
It is sin's infamous monument, and stands to 
reproach the JSTame of God, and the character 
of his people. As long as there is a grave, the 
glory of God will he dimmed on earth ; as long 
as there is a grave, a child of God will lie in 
dishonor. Hence the prophecy: "He will 
swallow up death in victory ; and the Lord God 
will wipe away tears from off all faces ; and the 
rebuke of his people shall be taken away from 
off all the earth." 

Christ undertook to vindicate his Father's 
honor, and to wipe away from his people the 
disgrace of the grave. A father's son, in an 
unguarded hour of passion, committed murder. 
He was tried, convicted and hung. The body 
was brought home, and buried in front of the 
house. The father would point to the- grave, 
and say: "That has darkened our home, and 
blasted our happiness." The grave is a stand- 
ing reproach before God. The first grave was 
something new and dreadful. What strange 
sensations it must have excited. Then sin 
began to open graves. What countless addi- 
tions have been made! During the Christian 



Going Forth Against Death and the Grave. 73 

era it is estimated that over three billions and 
eighty millions have been added to the popula- 
tion of the grave. Besides, they were digging 
graves four thousand years before. The world 
is covered with them. The earth is a vast 
cemetery. The globe is an immense tomb, and 
as it rolls among the worlds, its vaults of shame 
and dishonor are flaunted in the face of God. 

The Redeemer looks upon the vast necropolis 
of earth. He has looked on every opening 
grave as an additional dishonor to his Father's 
name. With ever increasing concern he has 
watched, as grave has been added to grave. 
Now hosts of the children of God lie in the 
dust, the dead victims of sin. With the honor 
of his Father on his heart, how inexorable the 
purpose to take away this reproach from before 
Him. 

The grave is, also, a foul blot on the saints. 
They are "sown in dishonor." They lie in 
shame before their Father's face. They lie 
dishonored before their Redeemer. He feels 
for them. As they are going down in the 
shame, he says : "Precious in the sight of the 
Lord is the death of his saints." As they lie 
in it he remembers them — watches over them. 
Through the long ages he has seen them lying 
in dishonor. The duration of their captivity 



74 , The Exodus From Death. 

but intensifies his purpose. Nothing can 
stay it. 

And not only the reproach of the grave will 
move the coming Redeemer, but the attendant 
spirits will stir his ardor. The spirits of the 
saints are with him. "Them that sleep in 
Jesus will God bring with him." They are 
coming for their bodies. With these hosts of 
expectant spirits at his back, looking on his 
mighty Arm, what can change his determina- 
tion ? He is heedless. The reproach must be 
taken from before God, and off his people. See 
him coming, in the greatness of his strength, 
mighty to save. See his glory cover the grave. 
See him "swallow up death in victory." Hear 
the voice from on high saying to this greater 
Joshua: "This day have I rolled away the re- 
proach of death from off you." 

III. THE PRAYERS OF THE AGES. 

The Redeemer in going forth to raise the 
dead is moved by the cries of his waiting peo- 
ple. He has not only engaged to put down sin, 
and take off its reproach, but promised to hear 
the petitions of his people. His ears are ever 
open to them. He regards every sign, is 
moved by every groan, and hears every petition. 
"Like as a father" he hears and pities. 



Going Forth Against Death and the Grave. 75 

Here is a father whose children are in dis- 
tress. They apply to him for relief. The case 
is such as cannot be helped till a certain time in 
the future. But they continue to apply to 
their father. He receives letters upon letters 
— they come in the morning ; come in the 
evening. He lays them up. Moreover, they 
eome in person to him, and continue daily to 
come to plead with him for help. The father 
is moved — he thinks of nothing else — he can- 
not rest — he walks the floor — he longs for the 
hour when he can go to the relief of his plead- 
ing children. When the hour comes, what 
could turn him back ? 

Deliverance from sin and death is in the cry 
and hope of every saint. The resurrection 
completes the work of deliverance. There is 
a future day appointed for it. The new crea- 
ture longs for that day. Deliverance from the 
grave is the last and crowning object of gracious 
hope. The saints of old caught by faith the 
far-off, wondrous mystery. Job, Abraham, 
Joseph, David, saw dimly the glorious truth. 
The saints, from the risen Christ down, have 
preached it, and rejoiced in hope of it. 

The great rising day has been in the minds 
and cries of God's people in all ages. It is the 
end for which the redeemed nature yearns. It 



76 The Exodus From Death. 

longs daily for the perfect deliverance. Every 
hour from Abel's day till now the saints have 
cried against sin and death. Petitions in one 
unbroken, continuous stream Have gone up to 
the Redeemer for deliverance from the last 
enemy. These petitions are preserved. John 
saw them in "the prayers of all saints upon the 
golden altar before the throne." The cries of 
the immense past are kept, those of the future 
will all be preserved. Think of the augmented 
volume of petitions that will be upon the heart, 
and move the Arm of the Redeemer in that day. 
And not only the living cry to be remembered 
when in their graves, but the spirits of the 
sainted dead cry. The hosts of spirits in the 
Redeemer's presence cry to him for deliverance 
from death. They "cry with a loud voice, say- 
ing, How long, O Lord, holy and true." The 
petitions of the living and dead saints are all 
upon the Redeemer's heart. In the last day all 
these petitions will come up in remembrance. 
All the cries of the innumerable hosts of God 
will enter the Redeemer's ears. The petition, 
"How long, O Lord God?" from countless 
tongues will come up like mighty ocean tides to 
flood his bosom in that day. With the cries of 
all the ages — with the augmented petitions of 
the redeemed to move him, the great Deliverer 



Going Forth Against Death and the Grave. 77 

will go to their rescue with impetuous determi- 
nation. He will then answer their cries. He 
will say to them, "Lo, I come/' with a power 
that will shake the kingdom of death, and he 
will cry to the prisoners, "Come forth/' with an 
omnipotence that will destroy forever the reign 
of the grave. 

IV. SATISFYING ETERNAL LOVE. 

The Redeemer, in the day of deliverance, 
will be moved not only by his engagement to 
put an end to sin, remove its reproach, and re- 
lieve the cries of distress, but moved by his love 
for his people. He is not only moved by the 
external considerations of sin and its ruins, but 
is moved by the internal and mighty power of 
his own love. As he considers sin, Holiness 
moves him; as he hears the cries for relief, 
Mercy moves him; as he looks on his captive 
people, Love moves him. His holiness makes 
him immovable in his determination; his 
mercy makes him heedless in his determination ; 
his love makes him inexorable in his determina- 
tion. Here is a trinity of powerful motives — 
holiness, mercy, love — combining to incite and 
move the Redeemer in the resurrection day. 
And love is the greatest of these. 

Love is the highest and mightiest force we 



78 The Exodus From Death, 

know. With men it is the power behind the 
throne in the loftiest undertakings and achieve- 
ments. With God, we learn that it is an illus- 
trious attribute. When He appears on the 
theatre of sin, He puts his glory in one monu- 
mental Deed — a Deed that moved the witness- 
ing worlds, and that is to stand as the memorial 
and study of the Divine greatness and glory 
forever — when that Deed was done, we hear : 
"For God so loved the world that he gave his 
only begotten Son." 

The love that moves the Redeemer is his 
longing to have his people with him. Only 
this will satisfy the demands of his eternal love. 
He said in his prayer: "Father, I will that 
they also, whom thou hast given me, be with 
me where I am." He is now to go forth to take 
them to himself. Love moves him. 

Thinking by analogy, we may say that the 
love of the Redeemer is strong in itself, will be 
stronger from waiting, and still stronger from 
the approaching hour of possession in the last 
day. His love, in itself, will make him relent- 
less in destroying the grave. His love has 
been tried. It was tried when the surrender 
of his glory with the Father was demanded; 
tried when humiliation was set before him; 
tried in his life of shame ; tried in the mockery 



Going Forth Against Death and the Grave, 79 

of his condemnation; tried in his dreadful 
death. His love endured through them all. 
Such love cannot be turned back. 

It is love grown stronger with waiting. It 
is represented as "expecting" this final day. It 
is hard for love to wait when dear ones are to 
be met, and the nearer the meeting, the harder 
the waiting. Love's desire grows with time. 
In view of his mediatorial work, the Redeemer 
has looked to the resurrection of his people 
from the ages of eternity; after his work was 
done he ascended on high, and has been looking 
to it still through the long centuries. His great 
bosom swells with the yearnings of the ages — 
it reaches intensity with its gathered volumes 
of desire. Eternal love will heed naught in 
that day. 

Then his love is intensest in view of the 
nearness of its possession. The hour is come. 
The prize is in sight. The people he has loved, 
and loved so long, are to come up out of the 
grave, and be with him forever. Love becomes 
irrestrainable in sight of its long cherished 
desire. A long delayed, storm-beaten vessel 
drew near the harbor, and the sight of loved 
ones on shore made many passengers leap in the 
water to go to meet them. In a caravan of 
pilgrims to the holy sepulchre, many, worn out, 



80 The Exodus From Death. 

had to be borne, but when the spires of the city 
of God were seen, the way-worn, sand-blistered 
feet could leap, and run, and cry, " Jerusalem! 
Jerusalem!" Haven't you seen dying people, 
too weak to speak, shout in sight of heaven? 
In sight of his loved saints the Redeemer will 
cry: "The day of vengeance is in mine heart, 
and the year of my redeemed is come." Love's 
impatient resolve will, in that hour, put turning 
out of its sight. 

No, in that appointed day, that glorious 
hour, nothing can turn back the mighty Re- 
deemer. He will be deaf then. Mercy can 
be most unmerciful — love can be most relent- 
less. The Eedeemer will, at last, deal with 
death and the grave in the fury of his mercy 
and love. Hear his cry : "I will ransom them 
from the power of the grave ; I will redeem 
them from death : O grave, I will be thy 
plagues; O death, I will be thy destruction." 
And now it has come to pass. The ancient 
tyrant is overthrown, the Babylon of the grave 
is opened, the captives come forth. Hear the 
■"alleluiahs" rise as the sound of many waters ! 

Yes, when the Lord's omnipotent voice says 
to the grave: "Let my people go," and cries to 
the prisoners: "Come forth," then all Israel 
will move, and march out of the grave. Final 



Going Forth Against Death and the Grave. 81 

and glorious Exodus! Look at the emanci- 
pated, immortal hosts, standing on the ruins of 
death ; and shouting, "Thanks be unto God that 
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ. " Listen to the descending trains of 
angelic spectators as they take up the shout of 
victory. From lip to lip the cry goes up — 
from host to host the tidings rise, till heaven 
resounds with the news, "The glorious work is 
done !" 



82 The Exodus From Death. 



Death, a Sowing for Immortality. 



"It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory." — 
1 Cor, 15: 43. 

DEATH, to the natural mind, is an in- 
scrutable evil. There is not a streak of 
light in all the black cloud that covers 
the blacker mystery. Human wisdom is 
speechless, and human strength paralyzed be- 
fore it. In all other fields men have advanced 
in knowledge — before pressing, assiduous re- 
search other realms have yielded; but the 
grave has permitted no advance into her dark, 
unexplored domains. Death and Futurity, 
without Revelation, are just as deep and dark, 
just as impenetrable now as ever. They have 
given no response to the long and pressing ap- 
peals of the ages. Faith alone has dealt, and 
can deal, with the profound problem of death. 
Faith takes God's Word. How death yields to 
an omniscient God! How it unfolds its mys- 
teries in the light of his Truth! Faith with 
her torch of Truth enters the dark portals of 
the grave, explores it, and brings back good 



Death, a Sowing for Immortality. 83 

tidings. Christ the foremost Leader entered 
death, wrested its secrets, exhausted its stings, 
and illumined its darkness. Christ trans- 
formed death. He revolutionized it. He 
turned its darkness into light, its dread into 
welcome, its curse into a blessing. Whereas 
they stood over the grave in hopeless lamenta- 
tions, they now stand over it and say : "Blessed 
are the dead that die in the Lord." The 
apostle says of the dying body : "It is sown in 
dishonor, it is raised in glory." In these words 
he teaches us that Death is a Sowing for Im- 
mortality. 

1. Sown in dishonor. Death is necessary, 
inevitable, inexorable. There must be sowing 
if there is to be immortal life. "Verily, verily, 
I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall 
into the ground and die, it abideth by itself 
alone ; but if it die, it beareth much fruit." 
The planting precedes the harvest ; we go down 
that we may come up ; we die that we may live. 

" Oh for the living 1 that dying bring's ! " 

(a) Sown a captive. The body is dishon- 
ored in the victorious hands of Death. The 
battle of life is over — the victory is lost — 
the body is a prisoner in the hands of the en- 
emy. How strangely and dreadfully bound! 



84 The Exodus From Death. 

It is not permitted to move hand nor foot ! not 
even to part the lips ! Motionless as marble. 
Not allowed to speak a word. Taken, and 
held, and lying before us in strange, dreadful 
captivity, and not permitted to tell us How it 
is, or What it is. Oh, if we could have but a 
word to soothe the breaking heart! But not a 
word can be spoken. A form made to be free, 
made to move in the busy walks of life, and lips 
made to cheer, now captured and bound in pale, 
motionless, merciless chains ! 

(&) Sown a victim. Shorn, robbed, de- 
spoiled ! Ruthlessly plundered and sacked by 
death. Nothing is left. How empty-handed 
the dead. Shorn of life — of its high privi- 
leges and blessed ministries. What a posses- 
sion is life — what charms are in it : "Truly 
the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for 
the eyes to behold the sun." Life, even in the 
realms of sin, dimmed by its thick shadows, has 
something God-like in it. Look on the living 
Countenance — see how it beams with intelli- 
gence ! Look on the living Form — see how it 
moves in its freedom ! We read of God's Face 
and of his Ways. 

Robbed also of life's privileges. Its friend- 
ships, associations, walks, free air. Not a 
friend, companion left — husband, wife, father, 



Death, a Sowing for Immortality, 85 

mother, brother, sister, all taken away. Alone, 
alone now. And not allowed the blessed voca- 
tion of any office, or ministry. Think of a 
dead wife and mother with her orphans about 
her! think of the sleepless heart-energies all 
stilled in death! How great and precious are 
the privileges of duty. To go as an angel in 
ministries to sadness, grief and suffering. 
How sweet ! In death the cold hand falls with 
the distaff of service still grasped in it. It 
may have left an unknown wealth of service 
behind it. Christ-like work, and Christ-like 
hand ! But we stand over a victim now. 
Death's ruthless signet is on the brow, and his 
sore destitution is on the pulseless heart! 

(c) Sown a prey. Death's work is not done. 
He does not stop with fetters and pillage. His 
fangs are in the last ligatures of the fleshly 
form, and he will follow it for the deep and 
final spoliation of the grave! How fearful is 
this last work of Death ! How human strength 
and beauty and glory are consumed in the rav- 
enous jaws of the grave ! The last vestige of the 
mortal form is spoiled. It is utterly destroyed. 
Death, the despoiler, in his desperate and insa- 
tiable rage, tears down the pillars, and scatters 
the framework of the God-like structure of the 
mortal house. "Dust has returned to dust, as 



86 The Exodus From Death. 

it was." In the mystery of God it is a lawful 
captive, a plundered victim, a decaying prey, 
and we cannot deliver it. Dear as it may be, 
it is beyond the reach of our arms. But we 
"weep not as those who have no hope." Death 
is a sowing. "Sown in dishonor." There is 
hope in the thought! Rays of immortal light 
burst out of that word — "sown." Though in 
dishonor — a captive, a victim, a prey — yet 
there is hope. We are sowing now. It is a 
sad time, but the seed time. "They that sow in 
tears shall reap in joy." We are planting in 
the grave for the harvest of immortality. 

2. Raised in glory. God says he will "swal- 
low up death in victory" — God says it. Listen 
to his ancient saying: "I will ransom them 
from the power of the grave; I will redeem 
them from death: O death, I will be thy 
plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: 
repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." 
Hear what the Son says : "And this is the 
Father's will which hath sent me, that of all 
which he hath given me I should lose nothing, 
but should raise it up again at the last day." 
Hear what Paul says : "Behold, I shew you a 
mystery ; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all 
be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of 
an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall 



Death, a Sowing for Immortality. 87 

sound, and the dead shall be raised incorrupt- 
ible, and we shall be changed. For this cor- 
ruptible must put on incorruption, and this 
mortal must put on immortality." The grave- 
yards of earth, so accustomed to their sad, 
weeping burial scenes, will witness another and 
different scene by and by. "The Lord himself 
shall descend from heaven with a shout, and 
with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall 
rise." The dead are to be "raised in Glory." 

(a) Raised in personal glory. The dis- 
honored form shall rise crowned with glory. 
The body, regenerated, shall be re-inhabited by 
its own spirit — the same body and the same 
spirit — and this reunited body and spirit in 
the immortal man is to live forever. Person- 
ally glorified. "But some will say how are the 
dead raised up ? and with what body do they 
come ?" "God giveth it a body as it hath 
pleased him, and to every seed his own body/' 
How far that glorious person will excel this 
natural person ! This is wrecked and defiled 
by sin, that is perfect and resplendent with im- 
mortal beauty. "The Lord shall fashion anew 
the body of our humiliation, that it may be con- 
formed to the body of his glory." "We shall 
be like him" in person. What a glorious like- 



88 The Exodus From Death. 

ness ! The earthly form is then the celestial 
form ; the body of clay is then the shining star ; 
the dishonored person is then the Son of God. 
We put away the forms of our loved ones for 
awhile — we will see them again. 

(b) Raised in circumstantial glory. How 
sad is the place of the dead ! How dreary their 
abode ! A dismal pall hangs over all the scene. 
Gloom, ceaseless gloom, rests on the thick 
houses of death. The very ground is lonely, 
and the air is full of sighings. Even in the 
sunlight, it is dark and cheerless around the 
grave. But all this will be changed. The sad 
mounds, the tombs, the vales, the hills, the skies 
will be changed. The gloomy circumstances of 
the grave are not to last forever. When God 
descends in that coming day to wrest the cap- 
tives from the prison of the tomb, he will put 
glory all around. The marts of business, and 
the halls of revelry will be deserted then. The 
centres of interest and joy will then be the glo- 
rified resting-places of the dead. The tombs 
will be vacant and shattered. The dumb mar- 
ble will speak and cry : "He cometh" ; the trees 
will lift up their voice, and cry : "He cometh" ; 
the old hill will shout: "The Lord hath glori- 
fied himself in victory" ; and the very winds 
will sing for joy. All changed. Dressed 



Death, a Sowing for Immortality. 89 

anew, and attuned anew. Dressed in glory, 
and vocal with glory. God will turn the dreary 
surroundings of the grave into life and joy and 
praise. He will make it all fit drapery to sur- 
round the scene of the risen, exultant, and im- 
mortal dead. 

(c) Raised in eternal glory. Never ending 
glory. Think of it. To die no more. No 
death nor grave then. Through the vast, un- 
ending avenues of eternity no cortege of death 
will ever move. Alive, with no possible death 
in future " while the years of eternity roll." 
God has given victory forever. "Death hath 
no more dominion" over them. They are to 
"live and reign for ever and ever." The 
former things have passed away — change, 
decay and death have passed like shadows away. 
It is Eternity now — immeasurable, fathom- 
less, all-abounding Eternity! No days, no 
years now. No youth, no old age. It is not 
natural life, but spiritual and immortal life. 
"And I heard a great voice out of heaven say- 
ing, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, 
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be 
his people, and God himself shall be with them, 
and be their God. And God shall wipe away 
all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be 
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, 



90 The Exodus From Death. 

neither shall there be any more pain: for the 
former things have passed away. And he that 
sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all 
things new. And he said unto me, Write: for 
these words are true and faithful. And he said 
unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, 
the beginning and the end. I will give unto 
him that is athirst of the fountain of the water 
of life freely. He that overcometh shall in- 
herit all things ; and I will be his God, and he 
shall be my son." Listen again: "The sun 
shall be no more thy light by day ; neither for 
brightness shall the moon give her light unto 
thee: but Jehovah shall be unto thee an ever- 
lasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun 
shall no more go down ; neither shall thy moon 
withdraw itself : for Jehovah shall be thine 
everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning 
shall be ended." "Thanks be to God that giv- 
eth us the victory" — the eternal victory — 
"through Jesus Christ our Lord." 



The Victory Over Death. 91 



The Victory Over Death. 



4 'So when this corruptible shall have put on incor- 
ruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, 
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is writ- 
ten, Death is swallowed up in victory." — 1 Cor. 15: 54. 

THE Scriptures are full of war. They 
abound in martial imagery. They are 
written on an arena of perpetual strife, 
and take coloring from their war-like surround- 
ings. The earth is a never-ceasing battlefield. 
Death and Life are the forces forever engaged. 
Death prevails — has always prevailed. He 
has taken all the generations prisoners, and 
consigned his countless captives to the prison- 
house of the grave. The earth is hollow and 
resounds with the caverns of its dead. Is all 
over at the grave ? Are the prison doors closed 
forever in death ? Must we turn away from 
our dead, leaving them in eternal hopelessness ? 
The soul is saved or lost at death. Its fate is 
then settled. But what of the body? Is all 
over with it ? "Dust to dust !" Is this final ? 
Is it the end of the body? Is the grave to be 
its dark, dismal, and endless home ? No. This 



92 The Exodus From Death. 

mortal is to put on immortality. The sad fate 
of the body as fallen and dishonored in the 
grave, should not lead us to forget its dignity 
and destiny. The grave holds a great prisoner 
in the human body. As wrecked and deformed, 
and at last cut down by sin, we may forget its 
original glory and final destiny. As a corpse 
it still carries the marks of its high lineage. It 
is still royal and peerless in the dishonor of the 
grave. God made the body. His superscrip- 
tion is on it. It looks superb. It was made to 
hold God's image in the perfect, sinless soul. 
How God-like it must have been in its primitive 
glory! God's great design will not be frus- 
trated and defeated by death. The body is to 
be raised up — to be delivered from the grave, 
and yet to be the glorified form in which the 
redeemed soul shall walk, and live, and praise 
forever. The deliverance from the grave, the 
final victory over death, is the subject presented 
in the text. This coming and glorious deliver- 
ance from the last enemy is a precious promise. 
God's people love to think of it, and talk of it. 
Let us study it as taught in the text — in The 
Victory Over Death. 

I. DEATH— THE CAPTIVITY OF THE GRAVE. 

Death is the sombre truth underlying the 



The Victory Over Death. 93 

text. It was before the Apostle's mind as these 
words were written. Death is the calamity of 
time — of the world, of the race. The grave 
is the Babylon of fallen humanity. The earth 
itself is an immense Tomb, hollow with its 
vaulted sepulchres. Death is a universal mon- 
arch over the race, enthroned on the hopes, and 
dust, and bones of the slain. His grim sceptre 
bows all the race. Every country is his ; every 
continent is his ; the sea is his ; the hemispheres 
are his. And all times and ages are his — in- 
fancy, youth, manhood, age. 

" Leaves have their time to fall, 

And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, 
And stars to set — but all, 

Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O death." 

Wherever and whenever the groans of the 
dying, and the sobs of the bereaved, are heard, 
there and then he reigns and revels. 

The origin of death. Whence is this destroy- 
ing invader ? How did death get into this once 
fair field ? What of this dreadful foe march- 
ing on and ever taking the very capital of life ? 
Death is no child's problem. The wise, the 
scribes, the disputers of this world are con- 
founded and speechless before it. Is God the 
author of death ? Did he originate, create 
death ? We read that when the Lord God had 



94 The Exodus From Death. 

finished his works, when everything was made, 
it was said: "Behold, it was very good." 
Death is evil, not good. Then death was not 
among the things made. Death was subse- 
quent. It was a dreadful accident of life. It 
was a contingency involved in moral life. It 
was a latent, awful possibility in the creation of 
God. A few words give us the history of the 
origin of death. We read: "Sin entered into 
the world, and death by sin." When man 
sinned — when the great and holy law of God 
was broken, Death, Medusa-like, sprung full- 
armed from the breach. Man himself brought 
on this dreadful foe. When he sinned, God — 
appearing to be astounded and awestruck at the 
new-born monster — said : "What is this that 
thou hast done?" What awful emphasis the 
lips of God must have given these words ! 

See the battlefield of death. The struggling 
arena of mortal life. What a scene! It is a 
universal and unceasing battle between life and 
death. It is weakness grappling with power. 
It is a helpless race in the hands of a merciless 
giant. If you can imagine a field of a billion 
soldiers, and every one of them in the fell clutch 
of an overpowering, deadly foe — the billion 
being stabbed to death by their billion-handed 
foe — if you can imagine that, you have an 



The Victory Over Death. 95 

idea of the scene. Or, let the billion victims 
be not only men, but women, children and in- 
fants, and you have a truer idea of the scene. 
But any picture is imperfect. Think of the 
earth as the field, and of all life struggling with 
death, and you have the best picture possible. 
Wherever there is mortal life, there stands 
death with his dagger over its bosom — wher- 
ever there is a beating heart, there stands death 
with his lancet on its veins. What a struggle 
always, and everywhere! 

Now see the triumph of death. All go down 
before him. He is master of the field. His 
conquest is universal and complete. He has 
captured all lives in the past, with two miracu- 
lous exceptions. How many prisoners has he 
taken ? What is the population of the grave ? 
Can its census be taken? The dead are esti- 
mated at about sixty quintillions. Sixty quin- 
tillions corpses, prisoners, captives, lie in the 
grave ! Can we get any idea of this immense 
host? Say we have them pass by us, two 
abreast, and let the counting be twelve hours 
per day. How long would it take to count 
them? Beginning with Abraham, in Ur of 
Chaldee, and then on with Isaac and Jacob, and 
have a succession of enumerators from them 
down, and the counting would still be going on 



96 The Exodus From Death. 

at the present time. Or, counting day and 
night, all the time, it would take a longer period 
than the Christian era to count them — that 
is, beginning before the birth of Christ, and 
counting to the present time, day and night, the 
enumeration would not now be finished. And 
this row passing us two abreast would continue 
to widen until it became an army girdling the 
globe! These are the prisoners of death. 
This is his triumph. 

And now look at the hopelessness of the cap- 
tivity of the grave. Not a ray of light breaks 
upon the darkness of that prison realm. How 
deep, and silent, and powerful is the grave ! 
As reason looks on its bands and bars, it says : 
"Whence none return." The captives lie to- 
gether in helplessness, hopelessness and silence, 
and nature says, it is eternal! Let the most 
potent voice that ever fell on the ear, or stirred 
the heart, cry — let the orphan stand on the 
grave, and cry to the parental prisoner, and no 
response is heard. Even the mother in the 
grave heeds not the wails of her child. The 
captives of Babylon sat down and wept in help- 
lessness. How much more hopeless the captiv- 
ity of the grave, than the captivity of Babylon. 
What was the power of the Babylon of Shina, 
compared with the sceptre of the Babylon of 



The Victory Over Death. 97 

Death ? Over the grave, Nature, the Priestess 
of Despair, chants the dirge of a Forever and 
Forever" ! There she furls the flag of her 
fallen soldiery — the flag of life, and says : 

41 Unfold it never — 
Let it hang there furled forever: 

For its people's hopes are dead!'' 

II. THE PROPHECY OF DELIVERANCE. 

That is, "the saying that is written." This 
is not from nature nor reason — "flesh and 
blood hath not revealed it" ; but it is from God. 
Death is a lawless usurper, and the captivity of 
the grave is a cruel oppression. While God 
ordered the overthrow of his people, and their 
captivity in Babylon, on account of their sins, 
still, he said: "Behold, I will punish the king 
of Babylon, and his land, and I will bring forth 
out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed 
up." While God orders death as the penalty 
of sin, yet he declares in phophecy that he will 
deliver his people from the power of death and 
the captivity of the grave. As the Lord has 
looked upon this proud oppressor, Death, 
marching, age after age, his prisoners into the 
tomb, he has said: "O thou destroyer of mine 
heritage," thy "Babylon shall become heaps, a 
dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, 



98 The Exodus From Death. 

and a hissing, without an inhabitant." Yes, 
as the Lord has looked through the lapsing 
years on the long captivity of the grave; as its 
atrocious cruelties have augmented his ven- 
geance; as the cries of the prisoners have en- 
tered his ears, he has said he would "swallow 
up death in victory," And in that great day 
when he goes forth to put an end to death and 
the grave, he says: "Repentance shall be hid 
from mine eyes." Nothing will turn him then. 
Blessed and glorious promise ! It rifts the 
dark cloud that has hung over the dead so long. 
Let us look at this great prophecy of deliver- 
ance — "the saying that is written." 

The saying as recorded. The Spirit says : 
"Write ; for these things are true and faith- 
ful." And the record is made in "the scrip- 
tures of truth." The promise was foreshad- 
owed in a memorable historic event recorded in 
Genesis 15. When Abraham believed in the 
Lord, and was counted righteous, the Lord 
said to him that he should inherit the land of 
Canaan. Abraham said, whereby shall I 
know that I shall inherit it? And the Lord 
made a covenant with him after the custom of 
the times: A victim was parted asunder, and 
behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp 
passed between the pieces. And the Lord 



The Victory Over Death, 99 

made a covenant with Abraham, saying : "Unto 
thy seed have I given this land." But as "the 
sun was going down, lo, a horror of a great 
darkness fell on Abraham. And the Lord said 
to him, know of a surety that thy seed shall be 
a stranger in a strange land, and they shall 
afflict them four hundred years; then that 
nation will I judge, and thy seed shall come out 
with great substance." As Egypt lay between 
Abraham's seed and the promised land, so the 
grave lies between this life and that which is to 
come. And as the bondage of Egypt threw its 
dreadful shadow on Abraham's heart, so the 
captivity of the grave throws its ominous shad- 
ow before — it rests like a pall on the life of the 
ages; it is a horror of great darkness falling 
on the night visions of a dying world. But as 
God judged Egypt, and brought out his people 
with substance, so will he also judge the king- 
dom of Death, and bring out the captives with 
great substance — with the spoils of the grave 
to enrich their immortality. "It is sown in 
dishonor; it is raised in glory." 

But there is a literal record. We find it in 
Isaiah : "He will swallow up death in victory ; 
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from 
off all faces ; and the rebuke of his people shall 
he take away from off all the earth." Again: 

LofC. 



100 The Exodus From Death. 

"Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall 
arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the 
dust. For thy dew is the dew of herbs, and 
the earth shall cast forth the dead." Then 
hear the memorable words from Hosea : "I will 
ransom them from the power of the grave; I 
will redeem them from death: death, 1 will 
be thy plagues ; O grave, I will be thy destruc- 
tion." These words belong far back in the 
history of Israel. Isaiah and Hosea lived and 
prophesied in the reigns of Uzzia, Ahab, and 
Hezekiah — then they foretold the overthrow 
of death. 

The saying as a tradition. Before the 
record is the oral, floating tradition. The un- 
written report antedates the record. The say- 
ing was an ancient tradition on earth. We 
read that "Joseph said unto his brethren, I die; 
and God will surely visit you, and bring you 
out of this land unto the land which he sware 
to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. And 
Joseph took <an oath of the children of Israel, 
saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall 
carry up my bones from hence." And, subse- 
quently as Israel went up out of Egypt, it is 
said: "Moses took the bones of Joseph with 
him." Could Joseph's strange injunction, and 
Moses' strange conduct in complying with it, 



The Victory Over Death. 101 

have taken place without any explanation of 
their meaning? When Joseph told them that 
Egypt was not the place for his bones, did he 
not signify that the earth is not the final resting- 
place of the dead? Did they not mention the 
great rising that faith foresaw, and talk of that 
day ? Abraham sat by the death-bed of Sarah. 
They needed the promises then. They talked 
of them. Did they say nothing about the 
crowning hope of the dying — a rising day ? 
They saw it, and were glad. And Abraham 
stood up before the sons of Heth, and bought 
the cave of Machpelah, and there he buried 
Sarah his wife. When the bowed patriarch 
turned away from the grave, did he not talk of 
that day? And who knows but that in the 
very twilight of time, at the gates of lost Eden, 
in the great seed-promise, and over the body of 
Abel, the first victim of death — who knows 
but that God then taught Adam the rudiments 
of the Gospel, with its dim and far-off resurrec- 
tion; and the first man talked of that day. 

The saying as a whispered tradition in the 
under world. It has spread below. It was 
too great for one world to hold. The ears be- 
neath have caught it. The saying has been on 
the muttering lips of the Sibyls of Death. We 
know they have some future knowledge below. 



102 The Exodus From Death. 

When the demons met the Lord Jesus, they 
cried out, saying: "Art thou come to torment 
us before the time?" "The time" — what 
time ? They knew that there was a future and 
appointed day of doom. They meant, it is not 
come yet. They also hear things below. Job 
asks a great question when he says: "Where 
shall wisdom be found ?" — the wisdom that is 
from God, and that contains this saying. In 
answer to Job's question, we read: "Destruc- 
tion and death say we have heard the fame 
thereof with our ears." Destruction and death 
are here personified, and hearing the glorious 
rumor from above, are represented as rising up 
like dusky Titans, demi-gods, and saying, "We 
have heard the fame thereof with our ears." 
The rumor of her destruction reached and 
spread through Babylon, and went to the ears 
of the king. Then may we not conclude that 
the more momentous rumor of her overthrow 
has reached the Babylon of the grave, and gone 
to the ears of the king of death ? Yes, in hell 
they have whispered with dread of that day ! 

The great saying as a tradition in heaven. 
When Moses made the Ark with the Mercy-seat, 
he placed above it cherubim with outstretched 
wings, and their faces down, mercy-seat-ward. 
That was a "shadow" with a reversed index — 



Tlxe Victory Over Death. 103 

it pointed backward. It was a symbolic repre- 
sentation of something back in heaven. Peter 
tells lis it represented angelic students poring 
over the mysteries of redeeming love. If the 
angels studied the Truth in which the promise 
was wrapped, they must have seen it, and if 
they saw it, they spoke of it. In heaven's date- 
less past, they have been talking of that glorious 
day! 

The saying formally promulgated. This 
was by Christ, the Lord. His announcement 
Avas the official publication of the Decree. He 
took up ancient truth, and officially authenti- 
cated and published it. Hear him on this great 
promise — as he comes he says : "The Spirit 
of the Lord God is upon me, for the Lord hath 

anointed me to preach To proclaim 

the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of 
vengeance of our God." Thus anointed and 
commissioned from on high, he says: "Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and 
now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of 
the Son of God ; and they that hear shall live." 
Then he says: "Marvel not at this: for the 
hour is coming in the which all that are in the 
graves shall hear his voice; and shall come 
forth." He proclaimed: "This is the will of 
him that sent me, that every one that seeth the 



104 The Exodus From Death. 

Son, and believeth on him, may have everlast- 
ing life; and I will raise him up at the last 
day." He repeats the "I will raise him up at 
the last day." Over the dead he said: "I am 
the resurrection and the life : he that believeth 
on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." 
And after the ascension of the Lord the Decree 
is re-published by the Spirit through inspired 
men. The apostles went out, and preached 
"Jesus and the resurrection." Here are the 
sill-truths of Christianity. These anointed 
men preached them. They declared the decree, 
that "There shall be a resurrection, both of the 
just and the unjust." The promise is kept 
before the world by the Christian ministry. It 
is to preach the Gospel, which, according to 
Paul's definition, is: "Christ died, and rose 
again." The Gospel is "Jesus and the resur- 
rection." To preach it, is to preach these doc- 
trines. Then so long as the ministry preaches 
the intrusted word — the message committed 
to it — it will proclaim the promise of God, 
that the dead shall rise. 

Now see the great and undying hopes that 
cluster around the glorious promise. Count 
all the spirits that have gone up from earth — 
count all the immense hosts of God that have 
fallen on the field, then estimate the dear, sa- 



The Victory Over Death. 105 

cred and transcendent hopes of them all, then 
collect and amass them all around the promise 
of immortality, and you have the colossal in- 
terests depending on the resurrection. Think 
of the tears of the generations that have been 
dried by this promise of God. Think of the 
bereaved hearts that have been comforted by it. 
Think of the dying that have been cheered by 
it. Think of the heart-burdened, dying world 
leaning its head on this marvelous promise of 
God. The hopes of the dead and living rest on 
it. The accumulated hopes of all the ages hang 
on it. Faith's inscription, written under the 
inspiration of this promise upon the gates and 
arches of the Babylon of Death is: "In hope 
of a glorious resurrection." 

III. DEATH SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY. 

Let us consider this great event, without at- 
tempting to determine its place in the order of 
final things. How long have been the ages of 
delay. The heart has been debating the old 
proverb: "The days are prolonged, and every 
vision faileth." But God's promise is as sure 
as his Throne. "It shall speak, and not lie: 
though it tarry, wait for it; because it will 
surely come, it will not tarry." And now it 
has come — the long and dark night of the 



106 The Exodus From Death. 

captivity of the grave is at an end, and the 
morning light is breaking. It may be that 
waiting Faith has understood by the books the 
number of the years, and the accomplishment of 
the years of captivity, and kneeling in prayer 
and supplications, she has lifted up the promise 
before God, and, lo, her face is illumined by the 
light of dawning day ! Morn of Wonders ! O 
death, thy day has come at last. At last, at 
last, O cruel tyrant, thine end is come ! 

The great hour come, God's Economies have 
their momentous hours. It was one of these 
hours when Noah heard : "Behold I, even I, do 
bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to 
destroy all flesh. Come thou, and all thy house 
into the ark." It was another such hour when 
Moses, on Horeb, with uncovered feet, stood 
before the descended Majesty of heaven, and 
heard : "I have seen the affliction of my people, 
and their oppression, and am come down to 
deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians." 
It was a great hour when the shepherds abiding 
in the field keeping watch over their flocks, 
heard from angelic lips: "Behold, unto you a 
Saviour is born." And when that wondrous 
Life approached its close — stood in the shadow 
of the cross, ready to offer its blood for the ran- 
som of men, then "spoke Jesus, and lifted up 



The Victory Over Death. 107 

his eyes unto heaven, and said : Father, the 
hour is come." The hour agreed on from eter- 
nity in which he should die for sin. 

God works by appointments, not by happen- 
ings. He has his hours. They are fixed. 
They are arranged by, and agree exactly with 
Eternity's clock. When its great hand reaches 
the hour, its ponderous hammer falls, and its 
deep-mouthed bell thunders the signal, the ap- 
pointed work is done. The resurrection of the 
dead — the overthrow of death — is one of the 
greatest hours of the Calendar of time. And 
its greatness is felt — felt from the magnitude 
of its import — its portents and hopes. This 
hour is surcharged with impending vengeance, 
and, at the same time, freighted with the yearn- 
ings, prayers and tears of ages. How still the 
hour! how oppressively still! It is death- 
like, on the one hand, with coming doom! It 
is breathless, on the other hand, with expectant 
hope ! It is pregnant with both the gathered 
indignation of Almighty God, and with the 
accumulated longings of human hope. It holds 
suppressed wailings, and slumbering alleluiahs ! 
The hour is come ! 

The overthrow of Death. Here our thinking 
must be by analogy — by something the Lord 
has already done that resembles this mighty 



108 The Exodus From Death. 

event, "The Lord hath opened his armory, 
and brought forth the weapons of his indigna- 
tion." "Set up a standard, blow the trumpet, 
prepare the nations, assemble the kingdoms." 
"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white 
horse ; and he that sat on him was called Faith- 
ful and True, and in righteousness he doth 
judge and make war. His eyes are as a flame 
of fire, on his head are many crowns; and he 
hath a name written, that no man knoweth, but 
he himself. And he is clothed in a vesture 
dipped in blood: and his name is called the 
Word of God. And the armies in heaven fol- 
low him on white horses. And out of his 
mouth goeth a sharp sword. And he hath on 
his vesture and on his thigh a name written: 
King of kings and Lord of lords." "And 
the sun is darkened, and the moon gives no 
light, and the stars fall from heaven, and the 
powers of the heavens are shaken. And the 
Son of man comes in the clouds of heaven with 
power and great glory, sending his angels with 
the sound of a great trumpet, to gather together 
his elect from the four winds, from one end of 
heaven to the other." "Howl for Babylon!" 
The angelic army of heaven is hurled against 
the gates of Death ! The Persians of the skies, 
like a sea, pour on the bulwarks of the grave 1 



The Victory Over Death. 109 

Column after column of angelic regulars, 
trained in the campaigns of Eternity, thunder 
on her walls. "Howl for Babylon !" The 
noiseless, but almighty bolts of Jehovah, fall 
on her. "Destruction covers her as with a 
flood !" "At the noise of the taking of Baby- 
lon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard 
among the nations." And now it may be, as 
in the case of mystical Babylon, that the con- 
federates of Death, standing afar off, cry: 
"Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that 
mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment 
come." "And they cast dust on their heads, 
and cry, weeping and wailing, saying, alas, alas 
that great city, for in one hour is she made des- 
olate!" "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and 
ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath 
avenged you on her." 

The scene of the, Resurrection. "The iron 
bars are broken, and the gates of brass are 
rent," and the captives of death come forth. 
"They that sleep in the dust arise and sing." 
See the liberated, risen, victorious hosts, as the 
sand of the sea for multitude, standing on the 
ruins of Death, and hear them crying: "O 
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is 
thy victory?" Can we get any adequate idea 
of this living multitude? After the Baby- 



110 The Exodus From Death. 

Ionian captivity forty and two thousand free- 
men stood in the land of their fathers. But 
that, relatively, was only a handful. Six 
hundred thousand Hebrews came up harnessed 
out of Egypt, besides a mixed multitude. But 
that was also comparatively insignificant. 
Xerxes had an army of two millions and a half. 
Add to it all the preceding armies that shook 
the earth with their tread, then add all the 
subsequent hosts that have been martialed on 
fields of strife from Greece, Borne, the nations 
of Europe and America, for three thousand 
years — consolidate all the great armies of the 
buried empires, and living nations of earth, 
and what a multitude you have! But more 
stay at home than go to war; besides, think of 
the women and children of all the ages that 
belonged to no army. Your consolidated army, 
immense as it is, is only a small part of the 
race — the race that will come out of the grave 
in that day. When the Lord Almighty "de- 
scends from heaven with a shout, with the voice 
of the archangel, with the trump of God," and 
cries to the prisoners of Death, "Come forth/' 
then the dead generations that sleep in the 
earth arise to life ! and the living are changed. 
O look on the illimitable field of waving life ! 
O see the immeasurable ocean of heaving bos- 



The Victory Over Death. Ill 

cms ! They cover the land, cover the hemi- 
spheres, cover the globe! They go up, filling 
the clouds of heaven. "Death is swallowed up 
in victory." 

The completeness of the victory. "Swal- 
lowed up in victory." The grave is covered, 
buried, obliterated by the incoming tides of 
glory and immortality. It is gone, lost. 
Death is swallowed in the total destruction of 
the grave. Xot a tomb is standing, not a 
mound is left, not a vault occupied ! The long, 
dark prison is utterly spoiled, a desolation and 
waste, without inhabitant. And "stretching 
over it are the lines of confusion, and the stones 
of emptiness." 

And death is swallowed up in the exceeding 
reparations in the resurrection. When they 
rise they come up with a new, superior, immor- 
tal life — with "glory and immortality." 
"This corruptible has put on incorruption, and 
this mortal has put on immortality." The 
life — fallen life — lost in the grave, is for- 
gotten in the more glorious life that comes out 
of it. "Sown in corruption; raised in incor- 
ruption: sown in dishonor; raised in glory: 
sown in weakness; raised in power." Death 
is swallowed up in the transcendent reparations 
of the victory over the grave. 



112 The Exodus From Death. 

And, again, death is swallowed up in the 
longed-for restorations on the resurrection day. 
Not only is the destroyed body given back, 
given back glorified, but the lost affections, 
hopes, and undying memories of time are all 
given back, and given back forever! See that 
stricken mother — empty-armed now ; sad, 
pale, silent. She is the picture of grief ! She 
says: "My face may smile hereafter; but my 
heart will smile no more till my dear child is 
restored. " In a floating poem we have a 
touchingly sad scene. It is a household. It 
was once a happy home. It was unbroken — 
not an empty chair in it. The parents were 
young and strong, and the wee ones filled the 
house with light and joy. It was the picture 
of an earthly heaven. The years pass by — 
on wings they go. How changed finally — 
sadly changed! The parents are old, and the 
children are not ! The home is desolate. The 
once strong man is now old, and blind, and at 
times under mental aberrations. The faithful 
wife is by him. The neighbors' children pass- 
ing by from school, sporting and laughing, stir 
the old man's memories — he is back in the by- 
gone days. He speaks to his wife, and says: 
"It is night ; are the children at home ?" She 
answers : "Yes, dear, they're at home" — sup- 



The Victory Over Death. 113 

pressing the thought: "in the better land." 
She muses: "They say his mind is failing; 
but he is only back with the children, in the 
dear and peaceful years." And so, eve after 
eve, as the children go sporting by, the old man 
calls from his corner: "Love, are the children 
all home?" And she answers with head up- 
lifted: "Yes, dear, all home long ago." And 
waiting there by the side of the poor old man, 
and thinking of the children gone, she says in 
sighs: "My mother heart is almost starved for 
heaven." Oh, the affections and hopes smitten 
down by death! What heart-wrecks lie scat- 
tered on the grave! But, now, the day of 
restoration has come. Now the Abrahams and 
Sarahs greet; the Davids and their children 
greet; the Eachels and their lost ones greet; 
friend and friend greet ; those long parted meet 
again. Now the heart, sad so long, smiles — 
smiles forever. 

And, now, the victorious hosts turn to their 
Lord in the air; they look up to him who re- 
deemed and brought them out of their graves — 
gave them the victory. They look down on the 
ruins of Death, and then with swelling bosoms, 
they look up to him — now hear the united, 
great and rapturous shout of the immortal 



114 The Exodus From Death, 

hosts : "Thanks be unto God that giveth us thtf 
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Hear 
the grand coronation song, swelling immense as 
ocean's roar, filling the heavens : 

4 1 Bring 1 forth the royal diadem, 
And crown him Lord of all." 



The Monumental Stones. 115 



The Monumental Stones. 



44 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of 
Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests 
which bore the ark of the covenant stood: and they 
are there unto this day." 

"And those twelve stones, which they took out of 
Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. And he spoke 
unto the children of Israel, saying-, When your 
children shall ask their fathers in time to come, say- 
ing, What mean these stones? Then ye shall let your 
children know, saying-, Israel came over this Jordan 
on dry land. "— Josh. 4: 9, 20-22. 

t; He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come 
see the place where the Lord lay.'" — Matt. 28: 6. 

THE eventful journey of the Hebrews is 
ended. They are in sight of the promise 
made to the fathers. They are now to 
realize the hopes cherished for four hundred 
years. Canaan is before them. But Jordan, 
dread and deep, rolls between them and that 
peaceful shore. As they looked over, "Joshua 
said unto the people, sanctify yourselves, for 
tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among 
you." Surely it was wonderful! At the 
appointed hour the priests took the ark of the 



116 TJie Exodus From Death. 

covenant, the type of Christ, and entered Jor- 
dan, and as they touched the stream the waters 
parted asunder so that "all Israel passed over 
on dry ground." Strange proceedings are here 
recorded. Under divine directions, Joshua 
had selected twelve men, one from each tribe, 
to bear twelve stones "from the midst of 
Jordan, where the priests' feet stood firm," and 
carry them over, and set them up in the camp 
at Gilgal. And Joshua said: "When your 
children ask in time to come, saying, What 
mean ye by these stones ? Then ye shall answer 
them that the waters of Jordan were cut off 
before the ark of the covenant of the Lord: 
when it passed over Jordan, the waters of 
Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be 
for a memorial unto the children of Israel for- 
ever." At the same time we have another, and 
more significant proceeding. We read: "And 
Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of 
Jordan, in the place where the feet of the 
priests, which bore the ark of the covenant 
stood; and they are there unto this day." It 
was a monument set up in the midst of Jordan. 
It should be noted that the men selected from 
the twelve tribes pitch the monument in Gilgal, 
but Joshua himself sets up the monument in 
Jordan. 



Tlie Monumental Stones. 117 

In these remarkable incidents in Hebrew 
history we have a great New Testament truth 
strikingly illustrated, if not foreshadowed. 
What is that truth ? It is : "The saying that 
is written — death is swallowed up in victory." 
The ancient promise is fulfilled, and become a 
reality. There has been a triumphant passage 
through death by the greater Joshua, Jesus 
Christ. The angels said : "Come see the place 
where the Lord lay." The resurrection of 
Christ is a monumental truth. It is a truth 
that commemorates the greatest achievement of 
all time. The empty tomb is standing in the 
Gospel unto this day. When asked what it 
means, sires to their sons have answered 
through the ages, that it means : "Jesus Christ 
hath abolished death, and brought life and im- 
mortality to light." 

The ancient Scriptures are full of "shadows 
of good things to come." Just what things 
among them were designed to be illustrations, 
and what intimations, and what types we may 
not always be able to determine. When the 
truth is come, and we review these shadows, it 
is wonderful to see what light is thrown back 
on them by the truth, and, in turn, what 
strength and power the truth receives from 
them. Take the abstract truth of faith in the 



118 The Exodus From Death. 

New Testament, and then look back at the He- 
brew standing with his hands on the head of his 
lamb, confessing his sins, and what significance 
it gives to Relieving on the Lord Jesus Christ." 
The memorable incident in the stones set up 
in Jordan, given in one of the texts before us, 
is a striking illustration, if not prefiguration, 
of future truth. The lessons we are to draw 
from it do not require that we hold that Jordan 
was a type of death, and Canaan of heaven. 
These views, however, held so long, and by so 
many of God's people, should not be lightly 
thrown aside as groundless. Let us study the 
incident as illustrating, if not foreshadowing, 
the victorious passage through death. The 
subject is : The Monumental Stones. 

I. A STRANGE MONUMENT. 

It is a strange monument. There is nothing 
like it among the works of men. It is some- 
thing new that has been done, intimating, it 
may be, something more wonderful in future, 
and only the new and unique will fitly com- 
memorate it. Did you ever see a monument in 
the bed of a river? While there had been 
restorations to life before, yet never, till the 
angels stood at Joseph's tomb, had such a thing 
been heard as : "He is not here; for he is risen, 



The Monumental Stones. 119 

as he said." Nor did ever mortal eyes before 
look into the grave, and see "the linen clothes 
lying, and the napkin, that was about his head, 
not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped 
together in a place by itself." And we read 
that faith, looking into the vacated tomb, "saw^ 
and believed." The truth of immortality, so 
vague and dim before, now bursts like a sun 
upon the vision of faith. Look at the strange 
monument in the depths of Jordan. 

It is a strange monument as unseen. It is 
quite, if not entirely, invisible. The words, 
"And they are there unto this day," imply that 
the stones might be partially seen of the passer- 
by. But even if this be true, still the monu- 
ment is mainly invisible. It may be that the 
topmost stone, representing, say, the tribe of 
Judah, which was the lion line, lifts its death- 
defying head above the dark waves. A hidden 
monument! Men build monuments on high 
and public grounds, that they may be conspicu- 
ous, and seen. This is unseen. If the truth 
which it represents could always be fully seen, 
how different it would be with us in the dying 
hour. See the saint approaching the Jordan 
of death. How deep, and dark, and dreadful 
it is ! He falters ; but he enters — the waters 



120 The Exodus From Death. 

part ! Hear him cry : "O death, where is thy 
sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ?" 

It is a strange monument as in the depths of 
Jordan. Why not have it on the banks on this 
side, like the one over on the other side in 
Gilgal? Why have it down in the river? 
The Jordan lies between the Hebrews and the 
land of promise. Canaan has been the hope 
and dream of their lives. Forty years of sin, 
and conflicts, and disappointments in the wil- 
derness have only intensified their love for 
Canaan's happy shores. Now they are in 
sight. Moses, the lawgiver, is gone, and 
Joshua, the Jesus of old, has succeeded him, 
and is to lead them over to their inheritance. 
Jordan rolls between, and must be passed. 
The ark of the covenant is borne into the 
waters, and they part, and Israel marches over. 
Joshua then builds a monument in the Jordan 
where the priests stood that bore the ark. Not 
only must Sihon and Og, on this side, and the 
kings on the other side, be met, but Jordan 
must be passed. So not only must the greater 
Joshua conquer mortal life this side the grave, 
and take possession of the immortal land be- 
yond, but he must make a way through the 
intervening stream of death. This he does. 
He passes over, leaving in the grave the monu- 



The Monumental Stones. 121 

mental words : "I am the resurrection and the 
life." In the depths of death, the truth stands. 
And it is strange as a monument of victory 
there. It would not be strange if the Jordan 
were still parted — her conquered waves still 
standing with a way open between. But "it 
came to pass, when the priests that bore the ark 
of the covenant of the Lord were come up out 
of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the 
priests' feet were lifted up unto the dry land, 
that the waters of Jordan returned unto their 
place, and flowed over all its banks, as before." 
The waters did not appear to be conquered — 
they seemed to pay no attention to the monu- 
ment — submerging and covering it. Do men 
erect monuments of victory in subdued prov- 
inces, and yet let the people go on in rebellion 
as before ? What would it signify ? A monu- 
ment in Jordan, and yet Jordan allowed to flow 
on as before. If death is conquered, and a 
monument of life is standing in it, why does it 
continue to mow down its victims ? Why do 
the saints die ? Just because death is neces- 
sary — is between mortality and immortality, 
between sin and sinlessness. Death remains, 
but as conquered, as only a shadow. It serves 
to draw out faith, and magnify the grace of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 



122 The Exodus From Death. 

A monument in death! An unseen monu- 
ment of victory standing in the depths of death ! 
We cannot see it, but we know it is there. Be- 
fore it was pitched there, the grave was the 
realm of gloom, defeat and ruins. Death then 
reigned — reigned on a throne of human bones 
and dust and wrecked hopes ! All was lost, 
and the undisputed sceptre of the king of ter- 
rors held the field. How changed since "Jesus 
died and rose again." Death now continues by 
permission, and in his dark bosom holds the 
monumental stones of life — stones that fore- 
tell his final abolition. 

II. AN ENDURING MONUMENT. 

It is said of the stones, "and they are there 
unto this day." The earth abounds in monu- 
ments, built to stand. Ages and nations, 
heroes and achievements, have been commem- 
orated by enduring piles. How magnificent, 
even in their crumbling ruins, are some of these 
monuments of buried greatness. Karnac, the 
wonder of Thebes, with its granite towers and 
massive columns, still stands in the desert 
sands after the wastes of centuries. And after 
the corrosions of time, and the shocks of the 
ages, there still stand in imposing grandeur the 
towering columns of the temple of On, of the 



The Monumental Stones. 123 

city of the sun. These are enduring; and are 
grand memorials of past greatness. How dif- 
ferent, apparently, is the monument in Jordan. 
Only twelve stones. How simple. God's 
ways are not like our ways. He does not ad- 
dress and appeal to the senses. It is the Truth 
that he would show ; for Truth alone is great ; 
and as it is moral, it would suffer under the 
dress of any material grandeur. A few stones 
are enough. This insignificant heap in Jordan 
stands for a sign — it is the plain cenotaph of 
a moral truth that is greater, more enduring, 
and more eternally glorious than granite shafts 
or marble columns ever commemorated. These 
stones commemorate prospectively the defeat 
and overthrow of the powers of death by Jesus 
of Nazareth ; and that is the story which is to 
form the fibre of the endless literature, and 
songs, and traditions of the world to come. 

The monument is enduring as of stones. 
Not wood. But the stones stand for truth. 
Then it is enduring as built of truth — a mon- 
ument built of the imperishable stones of res- 
urrection truth. Jesus said: "Destroy this 
temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 
He would not raise up Solomon's temple, but his 
body, and thereby build up a truth that should 
stand forever. The truths in the resurrection 



124 The Exodus From Death. 

are the enduring stones of this monument. 
The ancient saints anticipated the victory in 
Joseph's tomb, and rejoiced in it. The subse- 
quent saints preached it, and gloried in it. 
Their Gospel was: " Jesus and the resurrec- 
tion." And since, and now, the open grave, 
with its monumental truth, is seen wherever the 
Gospel is preached. 

It is enduring as built on the foundations of 
death. "And Joshua set up twelve stones in 
the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet 
of the priests which bore the ark of the cov- 
enant stood." It was at the bottom — where 
the priests' feet stood. A monument erected 
on the outskirts, borders of the enemy's land, 
might be unsafe — might be overthrown at any 
time. But penetrate the enemy's dominions — 
go to its very heart — enter its capital — storm 
its citadel, and there, on the ruins of the na- 
tion's strength, raise your monument, and it 
will stand. David would do enduring work, 
and he took "the castle of Zion," and there he 
reigned. The monument here is in the heart 
of Jordan. The priests with the ark invaded 
the stream — went to its bottom, and there 
stood with the all-conquering symbol. On that 
spot the stones were pitched. Significant fact ! 
The monument Jesus left stands right in the 



The Monumental Stones. 125 



midst of the enemy's realm — in the bosom, 
and at the bottom of death. Our Joshua, 
Jesus, the great High Priest of God, stood with 
his feet in the very midst of death, and as he 
bore in his heart the ark of truth, the powers of 
death went down, and on their ruins the monu- 
ment of life is standing. 

And it is enduring as built to hold the pas- 
sage of death. It is a monument of security. 
It is defensive. It is truth reigning to keep 
the way of life in the midst of death. England 
has her Suez Canal to open a way to her posses- 
sions in India. She keeps the way open — 
guards it. Her great armed men-of-war float 
in sight. Three hundred Spartans held the 
pass at Thermopylae, and heroically died to 
maintain it. This memorable monument of 
truth guards more than a Suez or Thermopylae 
— it guards the blood-stained passage of Life ; 
and more than Monitors and Spartans must be 
overcome to take and close this pass. Eternal 
truth must be conquered, and slain to do it — 
aye, the Lord and conquerer of death must be 
overcome before the blessed passage through 
death can be closed. 

III. ITS PRECIOUS AND GREAT MEMORIES. 

There was a monument not only in Jordan, 
but one on the other side. Stones were taken 



126 The Exodus From Death. 

out of the river and pitched in Gilgal. These 
stones were to mean to their children that "Is- 
rael came over this Jordan on dry land/' The 
tribes had witnessed the triumphant passage 
through Jordan, a shadow of death, and these 
memorial stones must witness the truth to their 
children — teach them that their fathers passed 
safely over Jordan. 

Stones may be made eloquent. They may 
be invested with history, poetry or song, and 
speak volumes to the heart. As we stand by 
the consecrated heap, its subduing or thrilling 
memories crowd upon us. Stand by the monu- 
ment at Arlington, and what great associations 
swell the soul. The man, Washington, the 
struggle of the Revolution, the sufferings, the 
heroes, the triumph, the liberty, all come up. 
Go to Jerusalem, to the valley below called the 
"Jews' wailing place/' and there the forlorn, 
outcast Hebrews may be seen, and heard, weep- 
ing and wailing, as they kneel and kiss the 
fallen stones of their ancient Temple. It is a 
picture of undying devotion. The stones speak 
to them — speak of their history, their nation, 
kings, kindred and worship — their former and 
departed glory. The stones commemorating 
the passage through Jordan — the great truths 
commemorating the greater passage through 



The Monumental Stones. 127 

death — what do they say to us ? They bring 
up great and precious memories. 

These memorial stones in the future things 
they imply, teach the victorious passage through 
death of Jesus Christ — the real and great 
Joshua. He went down into death. He was 
covered by its whelming waves. But these 
stones of truth re-echo his words spoken back 
from beyond, to John: "I am he that liveth, 
and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for 
evermore. Amen; and have the keys of the 
under-world and of death." As the true Is- 
raelite studied these strange memorial stones in 
Gilgal, and listened to the faint and far-off 
responses they gave to his longing hopes, did he 
not hear the truth of the angelic words to the 
women at the grave: "I know that ye seek 
Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here ; for 
he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place 
where the Lord lay" ? Vacated tomb ! What 
volumes are in its emptiness ! It speaks glo- 
rious news. Death is conquered, and heaven 
is opened ! But the stones have their sad 
memories. They bring up his dreadful strug- 
gle with death — the Cross, the agony, the 
blood. But our victorious Lord afterward, 
pointing back to them, says : "Ought not Christ 
to have suffered these things, and to enter into 



128 The Exodus From Death. 

his glory ?" Yea, Lord, we gee it now. Dread- 
ful cross! but glorious crown! We see that 
but for his passage, there would be no way — 
no dry ground for us to pass on through death. 
It would else be bottomless darkness. He has 
bridged death for us — put the dry ground of 
eternal truth in it, for us to go over on. How 
firm a foundation has even the dying saint ! 

Also these stones of truth commemorate the 
triumphant passage through death of our kin- 
dred dead. We all have loved ones who have 
passed over, and left us in tears. The twelve 
stones in Gilgal represented the twelve tribes 
that passed over Jordan. The fathers and 
families of the tribe of Reuben passed over, and 
those of Simeon, and Gad, and Judah — all of 
them passed over. And the children of these 
tribes, standing by the memorial stones, say: 
"Our fathers passed over Jordan on dry 
ground. The way is precious with their foot- 
prints and memories!" How often do dying 
saints remember and mention their kindred 
dead. It is significant that they should think 
of them then and there — think of them as they 
are going down into the Jordan of death. It 
is because those loved ones passed that way. 
The way is hallowed with their memory. 
There was a Christian mother who dreaded 



The Monumental Stones. 129 

death. She often spoke of her fears. Her 
child was called to die. She stood and saw the 
loved one pass over. From that day her fear 
of death left her. The grave became bright 
with the footprints of her dear child. This 
thought will help us die. Your mother — 
dear name, full of sacred and fadeless 
memories — passed through death. Can you 
not follow her? And your father, husband, 
wife, brother, sister, went that way. It may 
be your little, precious child — that dear one 
that left your heart and home desolate — went 
there. Can you not follow your child ? The 
footprints of our dead dissipate the gloom of 
death, and light up the pathway of the grave. 
A gracious God meant that this should be the 
influence of the memory of our dead, gone be- 
fore. When Israel was approaching death, 
and his son Joseph came to see him, he spoke 
of the things that were on his mind and heart, 
and that sustained and cheered him in that 
hour. What were they? One was the meet- 
ing with God Almighty at Luz, in his youth — 
that is, his conversion ; the other was the death 
and burial of Rachel, near Ephrath. The one 
gave him victorious grace to die on, the other 
gave him memorial companionship through the 
lonely way of the grave. 



130 The Exodus From Death. 

And, again, the stones of truth are a memo- 
rial of the safe passage through death of all the 
sainted dead. The twelve stones included all 
of the tribes — all Israel. With us they em- 
brace all who have died in the faith. They 
mean that part of "the general assembly and 
church of the firstborn" who have passed be- 
yond. No saint has ever sunk in death. Not 
a single Hebrew of all the tribes was drowned 
in passing over Jordan. Not among all the 
hosts of the dead who have passed over has there 
been a single case of miscarriage of eternal life. 
So many have passed safely over ! Their mem- 
ory makes populous the region of death. We 
had thought of death as lonely, dreary, dismal, 
and shrank from it. Ah, we find the way is 
swarming with memories — it is full of foot- 
prints, and resounds with the voices of the past. 
We sing: 

"Part of the host have crossed the flood, 
And part are crossing now. " 

Can we not follow the lead of the innumer- 
able company, the sacramental host that 
passed through death to inherit the promise? 
We think of patriarchs and prophets in the 
hour of death — think of the apostles and mar- 
tyrs — think of all the blessed dead, and the 



The Monumental Stones. 131 

way of death becomes luminous and illustrious ! 
How can death be dreary and lonely when it 
has the memories of such a company ? We err 
in our dread of death. The thing is not what 
it seems. The dark waves are to go apart — 
there is dry ground for all the saints to go on. 
And as they pass over they may hear in the 
voice of memorial truth: 

"Ye are traveliDg- home to God, 
In the way the fathers trod. v 



132 The Exodus From Death. 



The Continuity of Life. 



"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he 
that is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is 
righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is 
holy, let him be holy still."— Be v. 22: It 

THESE are momentous words. They are 
solemn with destiny. They are uttered 
in view of the grave, and mean that life 
here is to be forever perpetuated hereafter. 

As the vision of the seer of Patmos closes, 
God gives him these great words to write. 
They serve for epitaphs for all mankind. 
They are not to be inscribed on marble, for it 
crumbles, but on brows, not of flesh, but of 
souls — the one on the pale soul-brow of 
Death, the other on the radiant soul-brow of 
Life. 

These words are moral terms, and classify 
life — all life. They put the race in two great 
divisions before God. They are immense 
terms, sending their lines of distinction through 
all beings and worlds. They girdle the moral 



The Continuity of Life. 133 

universe, giving us the hell and heaven of 
eternity. 

Let us read the words again: "He that is 
unjust, let him be unjust still: and he that is 
filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is 
righteous, let him be righteous still: and he 
that is holy, let him be holy still." The Re- 
vised Version brings out additional significance 
in these words of destiny. It reads : "He that 
is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still : 
and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy 
still : and he that is righteous, let him do right- 
eousness still: and he that is holy, let him be 
made holy still." Here are four views, but 
ony two classes. There are two views of each 
class — one referring to the conduct, the other 
to the character. He that is unjust and he 
that is filthy are the same man, the one view 
giving his life, the other his nature. These 
solemn words, said for all the dying race, mean : 
Let the life continue the same forever. They 
restrain death from making any change in the 
life passing through it into the eternal Beyond. 
These words mean that death is to have no effect 
on moral character. The future is to be an 
eternal perpetuation of "the life that now is." 
The soul's affinities and moral habitudes are to 
go on unbroken forever. Let us bring out the 



134 The Exodus From Death. 

truth of these funeral words, that include the 
living and dead — the lost and saved of all the 
ages. 

1. The identity of life* The life in man, 
under observation from the cradle to the grave, 
is continuously identical. Always, and every- 
where, in this world, it is one and the same life. 
This conservation of the strange and wondrous 
unity of life is a matter of the man's inner and 
attesting consciousness. He says at all times, 
speaking in behalf of his continuous person- 
ality : I am the same. Joseph, then ruler of 
Egypt, after many eventful years, and great 
changes, said to Jacob's sons: "I am Joseph 
your brother." Nor time, nor suffering, nor 
exaltation had changed him. He was Joseph 
still. If all through this world the life is the 
same — the same righteous, or the same wicked 
life, why may it not be the same in the world to 
come ? Portentous question ! Let the soul 
speak for itself. Isolate it, free it, for the 
time, of the confines of its fleshly house, and 
narrow earthly play-yard; set it off in the 
solitude of its own vast world ; and let it alone. 
It thinks — thinks of God — thinks of its great 
lineage and destiny. It grapples with the mo- 
mentous Whence and Whither of life. It 
turns, and communes with itself. It interro- 



it 



The Continuity of Life. 135 

gates itself. It says: Who are you, soul? 
Standing and trembling under the vastness of 
the firmament of its being, it answers back: 
I am the same evermore." Now shuddering 
at itself, yet unable to repress the truth, it an- 
swers, with uncovered head : "No yesterday — 
but, the same Today, and Forever. Infinitely 
beneath the everlasting One, unworthy of any 
likeness to Him ; yet — the same Today, and 
Forever." 

Take a life, and study it yourself. It is the 
same life in all periods — in childhood, youth, 
manhood and old age. The old man and the 
child are one and the same person. The old 
man was once the child — the child is now the 
old man. No physical changes through the 
years affect the consciousness of identity in the 
man himself, nor the recognition of it by others. 
The once blooming cheeks, and now furrowed 
brow, are but circumstances in its mortal rai- 
ment — the inner tenant is the same. 

The life is likewise the same in all places. 
Locality does not affect it. The man going 
from Georgia to Texas, remains the same; or, 
going from America to Europe, across the 
ocean, the man does not change with the change 
of continents — he is the same man, with the 
same life beyond the ocean. Neither does 



136 The Exodus From Death. 

going from this to another world destroy the 
identity of life. The passage of death's dark 
chasm has no more effect on the moral life, than 
the crossing of the ocean has on the natural life. 
The life that leaves here is the life that passes 
over, that lands, and that lives in the other 
world. Joshua and his pilgrim hosts stood by 
Jordan, and as the ark of the covenant was 
borne into the stream, the waters parted, and 
they went over dry shod, and stood on Canaan's 
shores. There, on the other side, the voice 
from heaven still called the leader "Joshua," 
and the people were "Israel" still. In the 
greater Beyond, it is the same life "still, still, 
still/' 

2. The continuity in the order of life. In 
the laws of the soul. Not only is the life one, 
but its laws are one. The man passing into 
another world, not only has the same soul-life 
beyond, but the same soul-laws. The life con- 
tinuing forever identical, the laws of its moral 
constitution must remain forever the same. 
Isaiah gives us two great laws — laws of moral 
sequence — that constitute two orders of soul- 
life in this world. They are as high as heaven, 
as deep as hell; and, withal, as immutable as 
the Throne of God. They are in these words, 
which the Lord God puts in the mouth of the 



The Continuity of Life. 137 

prophet: "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall 
be well with him : for they shall eat the fruit 
of their doings. Woe unto the wicked ! It 
shall be ill with him: for the reward of his 
hands shall be given him." The laws making 
happiness the sequence of righteousness, and 
misery the sequence of wickedness, give us im- 
mutable moral orders. These orders have 
their bases in the ethical Xature and Govern- 
ment of God, and in the constitution of the 
human soul. Righteousness and wellness, for- 
ever go together. Wrongness and illness are 
forever indissoluble twins. It is not a hypoth- 
esis, but a verified fact in universal human life, 
that the right-doer invariably feels well, that 
the wrong-doer invariably feels ill. This order 
is in the nature of things. We see it is in the 
nature of things here — in this world. Will 
not the same order be in the nature of things 
hereafter — in the world to come ? Why not ? 
If this order is now and constitutionally so, 
may it not be hereafter and eternally so ? It 
is in the soul's nature here to feel well for doing 
right, and ill for doing wrong. Will not the 
same soul, with the same moral constitution, 
have the same eternal experience in the future 
world ? And as the feeling of joy or pain over 
remembered good or evil done, returns in this 



138 Tlie Exodus From Death. 

world, may not the joys or pains of all the good 
or evil done in this life, return in the life to 
come ? The boy feels the effects of his deeds. 
The same boy, when gray-haired, feels the same 
effects of the same deeds. In these solemn 
facts — - facts of observation and consciousness 
— facts in the science of the soul now — we 
have a corroboration of the great Scripture doc- 
trine of future awards. 

3. The two destinies. They must follow. 
The law of God, and the nature of the soul 
make them inevitable. What are they ? They 
cast their shadows before. "Whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap." This is law — 
changeless law — here, and must be in all 
worlds. Witness yonder scene: It is death's 
chamber. The pilgrim soul is passing away. 
The sun of life is setting. "The night cometh." 
Life's past is coming home. "Curses, like 
chickens, come home to roost." See them 
coming. All the thoughts, words, acts that 
went out as seeds are coming back like birds — 
birds of night. They blacken the skies. 
Ravens, vultures, vampires. "Where the car- 
cass is, there will the eagles be gathered to- 
gether." They have come to go to roost for- 
ever. To feed on the soul that gave them birth. 
For eternity's night, the eagles — its eagles — 



The Continuity of Life. 139 

are to feed on the soul! This is one of the 
destinies. 

Look again : Yonder is another pilgrim leav- 
ing the world. His sun is not going down, but 
receding in the light of another Sun. It is not 
getting dark, but getting light. The Day com- 
eth. He is waking up, with the breaking of 
day. What a halo encircles his brow! What 
a face ! How wonderful its peace ! There are 
no evil birds to come home. They were 
drowned in the blood of Calvary. The good 
birds are coming. "They fly as a cloud, as 
doves to their windows." They are coming 
back with benedictions for his head. How they 
sport their wings of snow, and plumage of gold 
in the light of that other Sun ! How they sing 
in the bowers of the soul ! The harvest is com- 
ing, and the soul is gathering sheaves of joy 
from its past. It is going home — and going 
to its own sweet, eternal home. This is pro- 
phetic of the other, the blessed destiny. 

These destinies are in Isaiah's words — his 
"well" and "ill." In them in their eternal ex- 
tension. The one is in the "well" that eternal 
law links to righteousness; the other in the 
"ill" that the same unending law makes se- 
quent on wickedness. The one is the "well" 
with which God rewards the righteous life ; the 



140 The Exodus From Death. 

other the "ill" He inflicts on the wicked life. 
Yes, the one is the final and eternal "well," 
overflowing with the blessedness harvested from 
the good seeds sown in life's by-gone fields ; the 
other is the last unending "ill," filled with the 
wretchedness, the gathered thorns from the 
seeds of evil-doing scattered in life's past. 
Great "Well" ! Dreadful "111" ! The one is 
the Heaven, the other the Hell of Revelation. 
They are the fulfilled prophecies of soul-truth, 
and of Scripture truth. They are the proph- 
ecies of God's funeral words come to pass, on 
the one hand, in the blessed, on the other, the 
awful realization of eternity. In the Bliss of 
Heaven! The Misery of Hell! Well may 
we sing: 

"Beyond this vale of tears 
There is a life above, 
Unmeasured by the flight of years; 
And all that life is love. 

" There is a death whose pang 
Outlasts the fleeting breath: 
Oh, what eternal horrors hang 
Around the second death!" 



Personal Identity Beyond the Grave. 141 



Personal Identity Beyond 
the Grave. 



" Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, 
and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Mas- 
ter." — John 20: 16. 

" But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become 
the firstfruits of them that slept." — 1 Cor. 15: 20. 

WHAT we are to be beyond the grave is 
a subject of deepest interest to all. 
And it comes within the bounds of 
legitimate inquiry. Mere curiosity in regard 
to the future should not be indulged, nor grati- 
fied. But whatever is revealed about our 
future state, is revealed for us to know, and 
may properly be studied. What we know of 
the future must be revealed. The grave is the 
boundary of human research and knowledge. 
Before the impenetrable mystery of death we 
all stop and stand — there nature ends, and 
reason gives out. There boastful philosophy 
stands baffled and dumb. We sometimes at- 
tempt to make the passage — to penetrate into 
the beyond. As Moses sent men across Jordan 



142 The Exodus From Death. 

to see their future land, and bring back in- 
formation, so we try to send thoughts over into 
the future. Blind explorers, they are! They 
have no ground to go on, nor light to go 
by. They hover on the border-land guessing, 
divining as to the unexplored beyond. 

But a revelation has been made — supernat- 
ural knowledge has been given. With the 
Bible we can go to the grave, and look beyond. 
In the Scriptures we not only have a verbal 
revelation of our future, but an actual revela- 
tion of immortality in a sample. We may not 
only see the future in prophetic truth, but see 
ourselves beyond in a specimen of immortality 
given us. This specimen we have in the risen 
Christ. As he is "the firstfruits of them that 
slept" — the first sample of immortal humanity, 
and as he is the pattern of our immortality, we 
can learn what we are to be by studying Him as 
he stands beyond death. The "firstfruits" was 
that which was first gathered from the ground 
and offered to the Lord. It was just like the 
fruit that remained, and to be gathered after- 
ward. If grapes were brought, it would be 
grapes just like them that would be afterward 
gathered — it would not be apples. If wheat 
were brought, wheat just like it would be gath- 
ered from the field — not oats. As our Lord 



Personal Identity Beyond the Grave. 143 

came out of the grave as the firstfruits of the 
great harvest-field of death, all the dead in him 
will come up from the grave just like him. 

In the context we see our Lord alive beyond 
the grave. Mary is weeping over his vacant 
sepulchre. The angels sitting where Jesus had 
lain said to her : "Woman, why weepest thou ?" 
She answered : "Because they have taken away 
my Lord, and I know not where they have laid 
him." Then turning herself, she saw Jesus, 
but, not thinking of seeing him, and looking 
through her tears, she did not know him. 
Jesus said to her : "Woman, why weepest thou % 
Whom seekest thou ?" Supposing him to be 
the gardener, she said: "Sir, if thou hast borne 
him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, 
and I will take him away." Then Jesus said: 
"Mary." Ah, she had heard that voice, and 
those lips call her name before — he spoke just 
as of old. She knew him, and promptly said: 
"Kabboni" — Master. There Jesus stands on 
the other side of the grave, looking just like he 
used to, feeling just like he used to, and speak- 
ing just as he used to. When he said "Mary," 
in the very tone of voice she used to hear from 
his blessed lips, she knew him. Now is Jesus 
the same person, having the same body, life and 
sympathy he used to have ? What is he now ? 



144: The Exodus From Death. 

In that what we have ourselves. Let us study 
what Jesus is beyond the grave, to learn what 
we are to be. The subject is Personal Identity 
Beyond the, Grave. 

I. THE IDENTITY IS IN THE BODY THAT 
REAPPEARS. 

Men have bodies here by which they are 
known — by which recognized and identified. 
We look at the features, complexion, form, 
stature — any physical peculiarity or mark — 
and by these identify the man. Hence descrip- 
tions of the person are given in cases of fugi- 
tives from justice, or in the case of any one lost. 
In the famous Tichborn case the son disappears 
— is gone, and supposed to be dead for years. 
The father dies. A man appears claiming to 
he the son and heir of the fortune left. Many 
witnesses were summoned, and they carefully 
examined the person of the claimant, and com- 
pared every mark with the memory they had 
of the boy they once knew. When Jacob was 
before his blind father, Isaac, to get the blessing 
that belonged to Esau, and had skins on his 
hands and neck to deceive his father when he 
should feel of him to identify him, his father 
said: "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands 
are the hands of Esau." When Joseph made 



Personal Identity Beyond the Grave. 145 

himself known to his brethren, and they stood 
in astonishment, he said: "Your eyes see, and 
the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my 
mouth that speaketh unto you." He appealed 
to their eyes and ears to identify him by his 
person and voice. 

We see a body beyond the grave. Jesus had 
a body when he reappeared on the other side of 
death. In the context, when Mary turned, 
she saw "Jesus standing." The word "stand- 
ing' implies a body. Jesus said to Mary, 
"Touch me not." This also implies a body. 
Matthew says the women returning from the 
sepulchre to tell the disciples that he had risen, 
met him, and "took hold of his feet and wor- 
shiped him." "His feet" is conclusive that he 
had a body. When Jesus joined the two dis- 
ciples going to Emmaus, w T e read : "Their eyes 
were holden that they should not know him." 
This shows he had a visible body. To make 
all this conclusive, his body is gone from the 
grave. He must have it. 

The saints are to have bodies beyond the 
grave. In Paul's day they asked : "How t are 
the dead raised up, and with what body do they 
come?" They could see that if there was a 
resurrection there must be a body. In John's 
vision of the redeemed before the throne and 



146 The Exodus From Death. 

the Lamb, he says they were "clothed with 
white robes, and palms in their hands." Here 
the "robes" show they had bodies, and "hands" 
show it. But the fact, indisputable fact, that 
Jesus the nrstfruits, had a body, proves that 
the saints will have bodies. It follows, or the 
truth in the figure of "nrstfruits" fails. Not 
only that, but there would be a failure in the 
sense of a word, a word chosen and used by the 
Holy Spirit. The term resurrection means a 
rising of something out of the grave — "all that 
are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
come forth." What is in the grave — the 
spirits, or bodies of men ? Their bodies. 
Then if there be a resurrection at all, the truth 
of the word requires that there shall be bodies 
to come up out of the grave. So the saints will 
have bodies beyond the grave. 

It is the same body that reappears beyond 
death. Personal identity requires that it be 
the same body that died. It must be the same 
body to be the same person. Jesus had beyond 
the grave the identical body that was buried in 
the grave. This fact is conclusively estab- 
lished. Let us see: It is reported that he is 
alive — has been seen. How is this estab- 
lished? The body laid in the grave is gone. 
There can be but two theories in regard to this 



Personal Identity Beyond the Grave. 147 

— either that his body was stolen, or he has 
risen from the dead. They go to the grave and 
the clothes and napkin are lying there, and the 
body is gone. Then the angels say : "He is not 
here : for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the 
place where the Lord lay." His body was not 
stolen, for he is alive and has been seen. That 
Jesus has risen from the dead, and has the iden- 
tical body laid in the grave, is settled by in- 
fallible proof. The disciples have met to- 
gether — they have heard the thrilling news 
that he is alive — the women have seen him, 
the two disciples, going to Emmaus, have seen 
him, and now it is said he has appeared to 
Simon — as they are hearing and talking and 
wondering: "Jesus himself stood in the midst 
of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto 
you. But they were terrified and affrighted, 
and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And 
he said unto them, Why are you troubled ? and 
why do thoughts arise in your hearts ? Behold 
my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: 
handle me, and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh 
and bones, as ye see me have. And when he 
had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and 
his feet." The scars identified him, They 
left no doubt. Thomas was not present, and 
when the other disciples told him they had seen 



148 The Exodus From Death. 

the Lord, it was more than he could believe; 
and he said, "Except I shall see in his hands 
the print of the nails, and put my finger into 
the print of the nails, and put my hand into his 
side, I will not believe." When they met 
again, Thomas was with them, and the Lord 
stood in their midst, and said to Thomas, 
"Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; 
and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my 
side : and be not faithless, but believing. And 
Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord 
and my God." The nailprints were convinc- 
ing. They swept away all doubt. 

The saints will have the same body. This 
follows from the meaning of the word resurrec- 
tion. It is defined as, "A rising again from 
the dead; a restoration from death to life." 
To have a resurrection the body laid in the 
grave must come up again. It is the body 
buried, and it must be the body that rises. 
And as a restoration to life, it must be the body, 
for it* is the body that is dead. Furthermore, 
if it is not the same body that rises, it is another 
body created, and coming up. It is a new 
creation, instead of a resurrection. And if an- 
other body, then that far another man, and 
could not be judged — rewarded or punished 
for the deeds done in the body. The body of 



Personal Identity Beyond the Grave. 149 

the wicked man ? in which sin was committed, 
ought to be punished, and not a new body. 
The body in which Paul served and suffered — 
that bore scars for Christ — ought to be re- 
warded, not another body. But the Scriptures 
settle it — they clearly teach that it is the 
same body. At his second coming it is said 
the Saviour will raise the dead — this is the 
language used: "Who shall change our vile 
body, that it may be fashioned like unto his 
glorious body;" or, as again rendered: "Who 
shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, 
that it may be conformed to the body of his 
glory?" In either case it is unquestionably 
the same body "changed," "fashioned anew." 
Again, Paul, speaking of the resurrection, says : 
"It (the body) is sown in corruption; it (the 
same body) is raised in incorruption ; it (the 
body) is sown in dishonor; it (the same body) 
is raised in glory; it (the body) is sown in 
weakness; it (the same body) is raised in 
power; it (the body) is sown a natural body; 
it (the same body buried) is raised a spiritual 
body." These words necessitate the view that 
it is the same body that rises from the grave — 
the language is clear and conclusive as to this. 
There is no getting around this stubborn neuter 
pronoun — "it" — "it." There is no evading 



150 The Exodus From Death. 

the argument except by calling in question 
Paul's grammar. But Paul was inspired, and 
to impute ignorance to him would be to reflect 
on the syntax of the Holy Ghost. Who would 
be guilty of that temerity, if not blasphemy! 
Then the same bodies, "fashioned anew," will 
reappear in the life to come. 

II. THE IDENTITY IS IN THE MIND THAT RE- 
APPEARS. 

That is, the knowledge there will be the same 
we had here. The mind is the rational man. 
It knows. And the knowledge of the man 
constitutes his continuous mental personality. 
At different periods of time the man is con- 
scious that he is the same person from the con- 
tinuity and identity of his knowledge. This 
consciousness arising from the same mind and 
knowledge is the basis and conservator of ac- 
countable life, and of eternal personal identity. 
It holds intact the mysterious unity of life, 
making it one forever. It is the wondrous tire 
that surrounds and keeps the wheel of being to- 
gether and makes it one evermore. This 
knowledge of one's self, friends and surround- 
ings all along from youth up constitutes the 
identity of the mental man. 

We see knowledge in the future. The dead 



Personal Identity Beyond the Grave. 151 

reappear beyond with minds. It is a rational, 
conscious state. We must admit that we knoiu 
in the future, or else hold that we are uncon- 
scious, or infants, or idiots. But we are none 
of these. Then we reappear in the future 
knowing something — having some knowledge 
in our minds. What is it we have and know in 
our consciousness? It must be just what we 
had and knew here. It is necessarily the same 
knowledge. Jesus knows and talks to his dis- 
ciples. Beyond the grave he has the same 
mind, and the identical knowledge he carried 
to Calvary. He arose from the dead with the 
very knowledge of himself, his disciples, things 
and places, that he carried to the grave. And 
the saints will reappear beyond, rational and 
conscious — knowing just as and what they 
knew on this side of the grave. Jesus knew 
Mary, and Mary knew Jesus. 

It will be the same knowledge in future. 
This is necessary to the continuous integrity of 
rational life. Jesus had the same knowledge. 
He knew he was himself — was conscious of 
his identity — that he was the same Jesus that 
died. He said to the disciples: "It is I my- 
self." And he said : "These are the words 
which I spake unto you, while I was yet with 
you." Here he makes not only the words, 



152 The Exodus From Death. 

truths there and here the same, but he makes 
the Jesus speaking there the same as the Jesus 
that spoke here. He identifies himself by his 
teachings. He said to the astonished Saul: 
"I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." Yes, it 
is Jesus still — that is his name on high — his 
name forever. And, 

"There is no name so sweet on earth 
And none so sweet in heaven." 

I believe our dead have the same names be- 
yond. Why not? Jesus has. He, on the 
other side, knew Peter and Thomas by their 
names just as he had known them on this side 
of the grave. He knew Mary there as the same 
devoted disciple who had followed him here in 
his life, and he still called her the same — 
"Mary." 

The same knowledge will reappear in the 
saints. If not, then they are not the same in 
mind — they are new souls created. If so, 
then it follows that they are not responsible for 
any evil done in the body in this life, nor de- 
serving of any credit for good done in the body. 
As newly created souls they can neither be pun- 
ished nor rewarded for anything done here. 
~Noy is their resurrection like Christ's, if they 
do not have the same knowledge. Christ's 



Personal Identity Beyond the Grave. 153 

mind with its knowledge was not wrecked and 
lost in the passage of death — nor will theirs 
be. But the Scriptures foreshow the same 
knowledge in the saints. David said when his 
child died : "I shall go to him ? but he shall not 
return to me." Why say he would go to him, 
if he was not to know him ? In moving David 
to say this did not the Spirit mean to imply 
that we would know our loved dead in the other 
world ? The rich man looks up from the lost 
world, and sees, and knows Lazarus in Abra- 
ham's bosom; and knows him as the same 
Lazarus that he knew lying at his gate in this 
world. Paul said to the Thessalonians : "For 
what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing ? 
Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord 
Jesus at his coming?" How could Paul re- 
joice in them, if he did not know them in that 
day? Yes, we will know then, just what we 
know now. 

III. THE IDENTITY IS IN THE HEART THAT 
REAPPEARS. 

The heart is the moral man — the seat of the 
affections. These soul-ties are an important 
part of our personality. Call them spiritual 
affinities, and you name the deepest things in 
us — things prophetic of destiny. It is writ- 
ten that God knows men by their hearts — not 



154 The Exodus From Death. 

their forms or faces : "The Lord looketh on the 
heart." The heart is the seat of the high and 
holy affinities that rise, and reach, and bind to 
God and his Throne forever. These affinities 
appear in the sympathies and habits of life — ~ 
in love and association. 

We see the same affinities in the future. Do 
any natural ties reappear ? Do we take the ties 
and sympathies of natural life beyond ? Here 
we must be cautious. The answer must not 
extend over the truth, nor come short of the 
truth. It must not go too far, nor come too 
short. It is safe to say we do not take the 
selfish beyond. There may be, and is, the self- 
ish in conjugal, parental and fraternal ties. 
The mother of Zebedee's children will not carry 
her ambition for her sons beyond. But may 
not some natural ties continue ? If the natural 
body is to continue as purified and immortal- 
ized, may not some affections and affinities of 
the natural life be purified, and made meet for 
heavenly perpetuity? I will leave this ques- 
tion with you after some quotations from the 
Scriptures. In the dark hours of Gethsemane, 
the Saviour withdrew from the disciples to 
pray, and "he took with him Peter, and the two 
sons of Zebedee." This was preference for 
these three over the others, and in a perfect 



Personal Identity Beyond the Grave. 155 

being. In his transfiguration he takes the 
same three brethren. In the sad hours of the 
last feast, we read : "Now there was leaning on 
Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus 
loved." This was John. Hence he is called 
the beloved disciple. These partial feelings of 
Jesus were without sin, and continue beyond. 
So some natural ties may become immortal ties. 
But we know spiritual affinities continue. 
They reappear in the risen Christ. He loved 
his disciples before, death — "As the Father 
hath loved me, so have I loved you." Did he 
love them after death — beyond the grave ? 
Or did his love for them perish in the grave ? 
It is a question of fact, to be settled by the 
record. After his resurrection he said to the 
women : "Go tell my brethren that they depart 
into Galilee, and there shall they see me." 
They were still his "brethren" — that remained. 
And he called them "my brethren" to Mary, 
and sent her to tell them: "I ascend unto my 
Father and your Father, and to my God and 
your God." There had been no change in the 
high and holy spiritual relations he sustained 
to them and the Father. They remained. 
And we read that "Christ has entered into 
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of 



156 The Exodus From Death. 

God for us." In heaven he still loves his peo- 
ple, and intercedes for them. 

And spiritual ties reappear in the saints. 
There is Christian attachment now; and how 
real, pure and blessed it is. There is love to 
Christ. Peter said: "Lord, thou knowest all 
things ; thou knowest that I love thee." There 
is love to Christians. "Behold how good and 
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell to- 
gether in unity." "We know that we have 
passed from death unto life, because we love 
the brethren." This same love will reappear 
then. As they stand beyond with "the harps 
of God," they sing "the song of Moses and the 
Lamb." The same love and praise of Christ 
we have here is to be there. The song is the 
same in both worlds. And the immortal saints 
still love one another. We read: "And they 
shall come from the east, and from the west, 
and from the north, and from the south, and 
shall sit down in the kingdom of God," and this 
is to be with "Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, 
and all the prophets." The love that makes us 
consort together here will make us eternal com- 
panions in the kingdom beyond. Christian 
love that binds us here, survives the grave, and 
goes on forever. Love is eternal. 



Personal Identity Beyond the Grave. 157 

We see the same spiritual habits in the 
future. The religious life goes on into the be- 
yond — "He that is righteous, let him be right- 
eous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy 
still." Moral habitudes are changeless — "Can 
the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard 
his spots ? Then may ye also do good, that are 
accustomed to do evil." What were the habits 
of the risen Jesus ? How did he act ? Where 
did he go ? What did he do ? — beyond the 
grave. Luke says : "He showed himself alive 
after his passion by many infallible proofs, 
being seen of them forty days, and speaking of 
the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." 
Here we see he is still teaching the things he 
taught this side of the grave. As two of his 
disciples go to Emmaus, "Jesus himself drew 
near, and went with them." The eleven were 
gathered together in Jerusalem, and, "Jesus 
himself stood in the midst of them, and saith 
unto them, Peace be unto you." Here are the 
same old ties he used to have, and he is keep- 
ing the same old company, still associating with 
the disciples. And he said this blessed com- 
panionship begun in his passion should not end 
— "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end 
of the world." And he said he would still keep 
up the habit of meeting with them — "Where 



158 The Exodus From Death. 

two or three are gathered together in my name, 
there am I in the midst of them" — this was to 
be through all future time. Here is an earnest 
and prophecy of what his life is to be forever — 
of his eternal presence and companionship with 
his people. In the apocalyptic vision of the 
great Forever beyond death, we have this: 
"Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, 
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be 
his people, and God himself shall be with them, 
and be their God." This is to be an endless 
Epiphany. 

The future habits of the saints will be the 
same. What are their distinguishing habits 
now? The psalmist gives a universal trait 
when he says: "I am a companion of all them 
that fear thee, and of them that keep thy pre- 
cepts." And he gives another when he says: 
"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us 
go into the house of the Lord." Still another 
characteristic is given in the words: "I will 
sing unto the Lord as long as I live : I will sing 
praise to my God while I have any being." 
Here we have some of the marked habits of 
the saints in this life — fellowship in 
truth, association in the service of God, 
and praise. These reappear beyond — in 
the world of glory and immortality. There 



Personal Identity Beyond the Grave. 159 

we see them still keeping company with one 
another, and meeting for worship : "After this 
I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no 
man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, 
and people, and tongues, stood before the 
throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with 
white robes, and palms in their hands ; and 
they cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation 
to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and 
unto the Lamb." You see they are doing in 
heaven just what they did on earth, only doing 
it far better. Again hear the voice of proph- 
ecy: "And the ransomed of the Lord shall 
return, and come to Zion with songs, and ever- 
lasting joy upon their heads ; they shall obtain 
joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall 
flee away." Their return to the earthly Zion, 
and its great meeting, foreshadows the greater 
return to the heavenly Zion, and the greater 
meeting in glory. Yes, the saints in future are 
to keep up their old religious practice. The 
habitudes of spiritual life are to continue for- 
ever. Heaven begins below. If you love one 
another, love God's house, and his praise, in 
this world, then heaven is to be yours by the 
continuity of soul-life in its fixed habitudes. 
The words of that touching hymn should be 
real to us: 



160 The Exodus From Death. 

" When we reach our Father's dwelling, 

On the strong, eternal hills, 
And our praise to him is swelling 

Who the vast creation fills, 
Shall we then recall the sadness, 

And the clouds that hung so dim 
When our hearts were turned from hardness, 

And our feet from paths of sin? 

" When the paths of pray'r and duty, 

And affliction all are trod, 
And we wake and see the beauty 

Of our Saviour and our God, 
Shall we then recall the story 

Of our mortal griefs and tears 
When on earth we sought the glory, 

Wrestling oft with doubts and fears? 

44 Yes, we surely shall remember, 
And his grace we'll freely own, 
For the love so strong and tender, 

That redeem'd and brought us home." 



The Great Meeting in the Heavenly Zion. 161 



The Great Meeting in the 
Heavenly Zion. 



u And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and 
come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon 
their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and 
sorrow and sighing shall flee away." — Isa. 35: 10. 

TWO old soldiers of the Cross meet. It 
is not long before memory begins to 
bring up the past. The old love to look 
back — they live much in by-gone days. And 
they often say "the former days were better 
than these." One of these old Christians goes 
back over his religious life, taking and holding 
up its happy incidents. There is one mem- 
orable event in his life. He stops and dwells 
on it. It was a great meeting — the greatest 
he was ever in. He can never forget it. The 
crowds, the preaching, the singing, the rejoicing 
are all indelibly stamped on his memory. 
Mention religion, and he goes back to that meet- 
ing; mention revivals, and he turns to that 
meeting; mention dying, and he recalls that 
wonderful meeting. The other old soldier 



162 The Exodus From Death. 

said: "I like to review the past — it has its 
dear and undying memories. And when I come 
to leave the world, I expect to do as did the old 
patriarch Jacob — go back to Luz where God 
Almighty first met me, and blessed me. But 
I love to go forward better. There is some- 
thing greater and more glorious in the future 
than in the past." And he said: "I often 
think of the great meetings I have been in, and 
enjoyed, in the days gone by. But I like better 
to look forward to the great and final meeting 
in Heaven — a meeting so glorious that when 
we reach it we 'will remember not the former 
things' any more." There was wisdom in this 
old pilgrim's view. It is right to look back, 
and right to look forward, too. The words 
before us today will lead us to look forward to 
the Great Meeting in Glory. 

I. THE STATE OF EXILE IN SIN. 

Sin brings about separation from God — 
the banishment of the soul from Him. This 
profound truth had its illustrations in the Old 
Testament. There the transgressor is "cut off 
from among his people." There we see the 
house of Israel, for defiling the land, "scattered 
among the nations, and dispersed through the 
countries." The nation was banished from its 



The Great Meeting in the Heavenly Zion. 163 

land for sin — "carried captive into Babylon." 
It is from this captivity that they are returning 
in the text. Among these shadows of truth, we 
have some instructive lessons in regard to 
atonement for and redemption from sin in the 
twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus. There the 
bondman could redeem himself, or his posses- 
sion, or his kinsman could redeem them for 
him; if neither, then on the great day of 
Atonement, in the year of jubilee, "every man 
should return unto his possession." Here we 
get two important doctrines in regard to re- 
demption. They are that, it is of the person 
and property, both. By sin we have lost our- 
selves — our liberty and life, and have also lost 
our heavenly inheritance. Hence the ran- 
somed have two returns. The first is the re- 
turn to liberty from the bondage of sin, the 
second is the return to home from the captivity 
of the grave. The one takes place in this life, 
when the soul is delivered from sin in salvation, 
the other is in the life to come, when the 
ransomed shall come from their graves to 
their heavenly home. The ransomed now have 
their liberty — they are no longer the slaves 
of sin; but they have not yet reached their 
possession. They are on the way to it. As 
they go they are singing : 



164 The Exodus From Death. ' 

"Heaven is my fatherland, Heaven is my home!" 

They are on their way to the heavenly Zion. 
On the way they give evidences of their exile. 
Christianity in the saints of all ages has given 
evidence that this was not its final home. Look 
at some of these signs of exile, of absence from 
home, to be found in the Christian bosom. 

That the ransomed are still in a state of exile 
is evinced by sadness It is a deep soul-sad- 
ness. Take one from home, and there is a feel- 
ing of sadness on the heart that no scenes nor 
surroundings can relieve. There may be, and 
are, moments of joy; but the thought of home 
will return with its sadness. The ransomed 
are away from their home. This is not their 
rest. "They desire a better country, even an 
heavenly/' They have joy, and great joy, at 
times; but the old feeling, home-sick feeling, 
will return. The captives had it as they wept 
for Zion in a strange land. There is nothing 
truer in natural life than Paine's "Home, 
Sweet Home." If there is no place on earth 
like home, can there be any place in the uni- 
verse like the soul's heavenly home ? It is ever 
sad away from it. 

This state of exile is also evinced by the 
longings of the soul. Why does a man in his 



The Great Meeting in the Heavenly Zion. 165 

higher religious moods turn away from his 
family and home, and sigh for another family 
and better home ? How sweet is the earthly 
home! It is a miniature of heaven. But 
there is a sweeter home on high — the real, 
heavenly home. And these heart-sighings of 
the spiritual nature are looking to that better 
home. Spiritual homesickness — do you know 
what that is? The ancient saints had it, and 
"confessed that they were strangers - and pil- 
grims on the earth." David had it when he 
cried: "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth 
for the courts of the Lord." Montgomery had 
it when he sang : 

"Jerusalem, my happy home! 
My soul still pants for thee; 
When will my labors have an end 
In joy, and peace and thee?" 

And yonder it is in a touching scene from 
memory. See that mother, widowed mother. 
The cares and burdens of home are on her 
heart. How heavy they are at times. Now 
she has carried them to God, and he has taken 
them, and set her free for the time. She turns 
away from all. See her with uplifted, radiant 
face, pacing her room, clasping her hands, and 
singing : 



166 The Exodus From Death. 

<l 0, happy place, that happy place, 
The place where Jesus is — 
The place where Christians all shall meet, 
Never to part again." 

What does that mean? It means that that 
mother-spirit is a captive here. See the im- 
mortal bird beating the bars of its fleshly 
prison, panting to be free. It sighs for a bliss 
beyond the stars. 

And again, this exile state appears in the 
movements of the saved. They are returning. 
You see this in their position. They have 
faced about — their backs are on the world, and 
their faces on heaven. You see it in their 
fourneying. They say, "We are journeying 
unto the place of which the Lord said, I will 
give it you." And they not only say it, but 
act it — they are going upward in knowledge, 
holiness and service. If they stop, God takes 
away the idol that stops them, and forces them 
to go on. And you see they are returning in 
their exercises, their habits. They worship as 
they go. They pray, and sing, and preach. 
This worship is preparatory, and indicates that 
they are going to the great Place of eternal 
Worship. 

Now, are these things meaningless? Has 
the spiritual sadness of the soul no meaning? 



The Great Meeting in the Heavenly Zion. 167 

Its spiritual sighings no meaning? Its strug- 
gles upward no meaning? Would nature, the 
highest nature — soul-nature — deceive us ? 
Is this faith in the unseen, lifting us upward — 
these yearnings of the soul heavenward — are 
these, after all, but solemn mockeries ? Would 
nature in us thus lie and deceive ? No, no. 
God confirms their prophecy. He says he has 
"prepared for them a city." By faith they 
have seen it "in visions of enraptured thought," 
and press toward it. 

II. THE RETURN TO ZION. 

The text says: "The ransomed of the Lord 
shall return and come to Zion." It means first, 
that they shall return from their national cap- 
tivity, and come to the earthly Zion. They did 
that. It is a historical fact. Nobody denies 
it. But it means more than that. It has a 
deeper, and wider, and greater meaning. It 
means that the ransomed of all the earth and 
ages shall return from the captivity of sin and 
death to the heavenly Zion. As the first 
prophecy was literally fulfilled, so will the sec- 
ond and greater prophecy be assuredly fulfilled. 
I like this little word "shall"— little, but 
mighty. It is: "The ransomed of the Lord 
shall return." It is imperative — "shall" It 



168 The Exodus From Death. 

is not may, nor can, nor will. In either of 
these cases the coming would be left in doubt 
as discretionary with us. But "shall" insures 
the coming as making it depend on God Al- 
mighty. It has behind it God's wisdom and 
power, and in it, the pledge of his truth. 
David seems to be certain of it when he says : 
"When shall I come and appear before God?" 
So was Paul certain of it, for he said: "We 
know that if our earthly house of this taber- 
nacle were dissolved, we have a building of 
God, a house not made with hands, eternal in 
the heavens." And how many thousands of 
dying saints have called their friends and fam- 
ilies around them, bidding them goodby, and 
saying to all, "Meet me in heaven." Are these 
confident and heaven-filled spirits the dupes of 
death? Are they all fooled, and dying de- 
ceived? Never. They are sure of heaven. 

This is a wondrous "shall." It is Jehovah's 
Imperative. It is the omnipotent "shall" that 
says, and it is done. The "shall" that rules in 
all worlds ; the "shall" that hurled Lucifer and 
his angels down into hell; the "shall" that 
binds the world of woe under endless chains; 
the "shall" that drives and guides and holds the 
ponderous worlds in their spheres ; the "shall" 
that sways all the principalities and powers in 



The Great Meeting in the Heavenly Zion. 169 

heavenly places. It is the supreme "shall" of 
the Throne! Millions have died leaning on 
that "shall/' and millions are living leaning on 
it. Wonderful truth! And see how this 
"shall" defies difficulties and obstructions — 
see how it disregards mountains in the way — 
hear it say, as the gigantic obstructions rise like 
Alps before it — say, in the confidence of om- 
nipotence, "there are no Alps." Yes, God saw 
all the things in the way — saw all the powers 
of death, and the ravages of the grave — saw 
the helplessness of the dead under the king of 
darkness — saw the dust of the saints scattered 
in the valleys, on mountains, and lost in the sea 
— saw the long and deep sleep of the tomb — 
saw all the lost and forgotten graves — yet 
God said, said in view of all these things, that 
the ransomed, every one of them, "shall return 
and come to Zion." 

It is "shall" as the return is necessary to the 
fulfillment of Christ's covenant engagement. 
His covenant with the Father, and with his 
people. His covenant with the Father was to 
bring the chosen people to the rest in heaven. 
As the true Joshua, he is to settle them in their 
inheritance. The ransomed are put in his 
charge, to be kept by him, and finally brought 



170 The Exodus From Death. 

to the Father. The Father would trust no 
other with them. It was too stupendous a trust 
for any other. It was to keep all the redeemed 
children of God through time, and through 
death. He said : "Of all given him he was to 
lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last 
day." His undertaking was illustrated by 
Judah's case. He promised his father if he 
would let Benjamin go with them down into 
Egypt after corn, that he would bring him 
back, or if not, bear the blame forever. So 
has Christ engaged to bring the people of 
God home, or bear the blame forever. 
Suppose, at last, any are missing — suppose 
when all nations stand before God, and 
the angelic world is assembled, that any fail to 
return! Then Christ will stand dishonored 
before the assembled worlds! That were im- 
possible. 

Also, Christ promises his people to bring 
them home. They have his word. He said: 
"In my Father's house are many mansions ; if 
it were not so I would have told you: I go to 
prepare a place for you. And if I go and pre- 
pare a place for you, I will come again and 
receive you unto myself: that where I am, 
there ye may be also." His word can never 



The Great Meeting in the Heavenly Zion. 171 

fail. He says: "Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but my words shall not pass away." His 
word of truth insures the return. 

And it is "shall" as the return is necessary 
to the joy of God's eternal Home. God is a 
Father ; he has a Home ; there is a place in it 
for every one of his redeemed children. The 
divine Nature is represented as desiring a 
dwelling-place with his people: "The Lord 
hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his 
habitation." His Paternal Nature is repre- 
sented as longing for the coming of his children. 
See it in the father of the returning prodigal: 
"When he was yet a great way off, his father 
saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and 
fell on his neck, and kissed him." As a 
Father, God feels like an earthly father, only 
infinitely more. "Like as a father pitieth his 
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
him." We must think by analogy — the 
Scriptures teach by it. You are a father. 
Suppose on some important occasion one of 
your children should be missing. How would 
you feel? and your company? When your 
child dies how do you feel? What a vacancy 
in the heart and home! On that great day 
when the ransomed are to return, how will the 
Father in heaven feel, and the angels around 



172 The Exodus From Death. 

his throne, if any are missing? Think of a 
vacancy in the Heart and Home of God! 
Think of mourning in heaven for children that 
are not ! But we cannot think such a thing — 
it is not thinkable ! 

Still, again, it is "shall" as the return is 
necessary to the display of the glorious work of 
grace. Eedemption is the crowning work of 
God. What his grace is to make of fallen, 
ruined sinners is to be seen in that day. It is 
not now known, nor can it be known, as yet. 
The vast expenditures on the work — the gift 
and death of the Son, the sufferings and labors 
of his servants — awaken highest expectations. 
It may be that His enemies have questioned the 
great enterprise, attacked the immense expend- 
itures on it, and challenged a showing. God 
will make the showing. He will exhibit the 
redeemed in the heavenly Temple. They will 
all stand there as the witnesses and monuments 
of grace. Creation is represented as "waiting 
for the manifestation of the sons of God." 
When the immortal hosts shall appear in Zion 
— when the Eedeemer shall cry in exultation 
to all witnessing intelligences : "Behold, I, and 
the children which God hath given me," then 
creation will burst forth in praises, and all 
angelic spectators will shout the glory of God. 



The Great Meeting in the Heavenly Zion. 173 

It will be seen then that the glory of the sons 
of God, more than justify the immense outlays 
upon them. 

"The ransomed of the Lord shall return and 
come to Zion." God says it. 

III. THE GREAT MEETING IN GLORY. 

That was a great and significant day when 
the long looked-for fiftieth year was ushered in. 
It was the Jubilee. The trumpet was heard 
throughout the land. Liberty was proclaimed 
to the captives. Every man returned to his 
possession. Significant scene ! It foreshad- 
owed deliverance from the bondage of sin, and, 
finally, from the bondage of the grave. 

There is a day when all the Israel of God 
shall "come to Zion with songs, and everlasting 
joy upon their heads." "They shall come from 
the east, and from the west, and from the north, 
and from the south, and shall sit down in the 
kingdom of God," here, then in the kingdom 
above. On the final day the trumpet shall 
sound — "the Lord himself shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of an arch- 
angel, and with the trump of God," and the 
captives shall come out of their graves, and 
ascend the courts of Zion. This trumpet of the 
final Jubilee shall sound through all the regions 



174 The Exodus From Death. 

of death, proclaiming liberty to the captives of 
the grave, and all the ransomed dead will hear 
the "joyful sound," and come forth. Imagine 
this exodus from death ! Imagine, if you can, 
the immortal scene ! Hear the Alleluiahs rise ! 
See the everlasting joy on their heads ! What 
multitudes! They are out of "every kindred, 
and tongue, and people, and nation." Such an 
assemblage time never saw. All the great 
assemblies of earth thrown together would be 
but a handful beside this countless throng. 
Here are all the redeemed of earth — the saints 
of all the ages gathered into "the church of the 
firstborn in heaven." It is a vast Convocation 
swelling beyond the reach of thought. No 
tongue can number it. It is the great Meeting 
of the ransomed of all time in glory. Yes, 
listen how they sing ! "And I heard as it were 
the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice 
of many waters, and as the voice of mighty 
thunderings, saying, Alleluiah." Let us look 
at the songs and rejoicings in this great 
Meeting. 

The singing in glory. They are to "come 
with songs." Song has always been an im- 
portant part of worship and praise. Israel 
praised God with vocal and instrumental songs. 
The saints are commanded to praise him with 



The Great Meeting in the Heavenly Zion. 175 

the melody of the heart and the voice of the 
lips. This method of praise is not confined to 
earth and flesh. It is to continue in heaven. 
Indeed, it is in the nature of men to sing. 
They love music. Carry them where you may, 
and they will sing. So is it in the nature of 
the immortal man to sing. If the redeemed 
cry here: "Bless the Lord, my soul," what 
must be the outbursts of the soul there? 

What they sing. Here we have many songs 
— different hymns and tunes. We have : "Am 
I a soldier of the cross," "Kock of ages," 
"There is a fountain filled with blood," "Jesus, 
lover of my soul," "Amazing grace," "The 
ninety and nine," etc. Among the tunes are: 
"Hebron," "Old Hundred," "Antioch," "Cow- 
per," "Coronation," "Boylston," "Laban," 
"Lenox," "Autumn," etc. But what will they 
sing in glory ? It is safe to say they will sing 
what they feel, and safe to say they will feel 
the truth, and equally safe to say the truth felt 
will be redeeming love. The truth of redeem- 
ing love must be the song in that great Meeting. 
John heard them singing it: "Worthy is the 
Lamb that was slain." Then: "Salvation to 
our God which sitteth on the throne, and unto 
the Lamb." It is called "a new song." Not 
new as pertaining to heaven in contradistinc- 



176 The Exodus From Death. 

tion to earth, but new as relating to redeemed 
life in contradistinction to rational and angelic 
life. None could learn it but those redeemed 
by blood. Yes, they sing in heaven the same 
truth we sing on earth. Jesus and his love has 
been the song of all the ages, and will be the 
song of the Age of ages. We can say : 

"And when, in scenes of glory, 
We sing the New, New Song, 
'Twill be— the Old, Old Story, 
That we have loved so long." 

But what will be the music? To what im- 
mortal air will they sing the truth of redeeming 
grace? As the truth is Divine, so will be the 
music. God gave the truth, and gives the im- 
mortal notes. Indeed, there is eternal har- 
mony in truth. It comes from God in fault- 
less, uncreated rhythm. It is set, in its nature, 
to music by the Spirit who taught it. Its scale 
is in itself. We do not know it now. The 
soul catches faint fragments of it at times. 
The notes are too pure, and ravishing, and 
sublime to be caught by fleshly thought and 
ears. Sometimes, when the dull senses are 
closed in sleep, the soul hears the heavenly 
notes, and so entrancing are they that the sleep- 
er awakes convulsed with delight. He tries to 
recall and retain them; but cannot — they 



The Great Meeting in the Heavenly Zion. Ill 

escape him ; he can only hang on the unearthly 
echoes as they die away in the soul. 

How they sing. With the immortal voice. 
John says: "They cried with a loud voice." 
The voice is a wonderful power. But here it 
is fettered by sin. There it will be perfectly 
free. You sometimes dream of speaking, or 
singing when the mind acts independently of 
the organs of the body. What gushing fluency 
you have. That is an intimation of the future 
liberty of the sons of God. Then, fetterless, 
how they sing! What melody is in the eman- 
cipated tongue! The soul has been compared 
to a stringed instrument out of tune. Sin has 
injured its powers and deranged its harmony. 
One effect of salvation is to restore in part the 
harmony of the soul — to put it in tune. This 
Avondrous instrument of the human spirit, per- 
fectly restored at last, will be a prodigy in 
singing. It will surpass in song any of the 
great master singers of earth. 

With instrumental music. John heard more 
than the voice. He heard "harpers harping 
with their harps." He says : "And I saw as it 
were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and 
them that had gotten the victory over the beast, 
and over the image, and over his mark, and 
over the number of his name, stand on the sea 



178 The Exodus From Death. 

of glass having the harps of God." What are 
these harps ? It may not be safe to say. 
There is no risk in saying that they represent 
instruments of melody and praise. They are 
called "the harps of God." God may have 
provided some celestial instrument auxiliary to 
the ransomed tongue in swelling his mighty 
praise. We may say these harps have tones of 
surpassing sweetness, such as were never heard 
on earth. Mozart and Handel would hang 
with breathless rapture upon a single touch of 
these celestial strings ! 

Who will sing. The persons. There is 
much in that. When we are going to meeting, 
if we hear that a noted singer is to be there we 
are delighted. Who comes singing with these 
ransomed hosts ? Who are the leaders in the 
grand song of redeeming love? Moses and 
Miriam, who sang the overthrow of Pharaoh's 
host, will be there. Asaph, Heman and Ethan, 
who led the choir of the earthly Zion, will be 
there. Job, whose song of sorrow is the loft- 
iest strains that come to us from antiquity, will 
be there; and now he sees his Redeemer, and 
his sorrow is turned into overflowing joy. 
David, who soothed the evil spirit of Saul by 
his magic strains — the sweet psalmist of Israel 
— whose harp still reverberates on earth, will 






The Great Meeting in the Heavenly Zion. 179 

be there. Isaiah, whose prophetic lyre gave 
forth such visions of coming Messiah, will be 
there. And think of the voices of the Chris- 
tian ages. Think of Paul and Silas, Luther, 
Toplady, Doderidge, Watts, Wesley, Montgom- 
ery, and an army of others. All these great 
masters of sacred song will be there. One of 
them would move a congregation. How will 
you feel when you hear all of them ? All the 
famous singers of the religious ages will be 
heard in that meeting. 

Then think of the number singing. They 
cannot be counted. It would be moving to hear 
a hundred trained voices unite in song. It 
would be more powerful to hear five hundred — 
to hear a thousand. How overpowering to 
hear ten thousand people sing! But there it 
will be millions upon millions, billions upon 
billions, and every one throws his whole soul 
into it, and every one speaks with emancipated 
lips and glowing tongue ! How overwhelm- 
ingly grand the melody of that world of 
tongues ! It measures up to the glory of that 
great meeting of the ransomed in heaven. 

The joy in glory. There is always joy in 
heartfelt singing. Singing is one of the ways 
of expressing joy. Now, what is this joy — 
this everlasting joy? You have been in a 



180 The Exodus From Death. 

gracious meeting. You remember, and long 
for the joy you then felt. What caused that 
joy ? It was from a sense of freedom from sin, 
a sense of the heavenliness of the place, and a 
sense of Christ's presence in the Spirit. 

It will be the joy of complete deliverance 
from sin. In the hour of salvation, the sense 
of sin, for the time, was gone, and how blessed 
it was ! But there was still dormant sin. The 
nature is sinful. It will never be clear of sin 
this side of the grave. But in heaven the ran- 
somed will be completely and forever delivered 
from the nature and guilt of sin. Then with- 
out a stain or trace of sin — spotless and 
pure — blood-washed — the whole being is 
filled with unspeakable joy. In a meeting 
once, a godly man, under the power of the 
Spirit, and with tears coursing down his cheeks, 
said one of the sweetest and greatest thoughts to 
him was, that in heaven, he would be freed from 
sin forever. It was significant that he should 
have had the thought at such a time and place. 
In an earthly meeting, he thinks of a heavenly 
meeting. It was prophetic. If no sin in 
heaven, then none of its train will be there — 
no death, sorrow, tears, pain. Sin and its 
dark train all gone forever. What joy it 
must be! 



The Great Meeting in the Heavenly Zion. 181 

The joy of reaching the home of the soul. 
It is always a joy to get home — even to get 
to a poor earthly home. After a long absence, 
how great the joy of getting home. The home 
is the dearest spot on earth. But the joy over 
these homes is only in habit. There is nothing 
in them that so adapts them to our natures as 
to make our love for them constitutional. Zion 
is prepared for the soul. The Hand that made 
the immortal nature made that home. The 
one is adapted to the other. There is an eter- 
nal fitness in heaven. That is the reason we 
feel at home in meetings — they have the 
heavenly in them, and the heavenly is in our 
saved natures. How often, here, the homesick 
soul sings of heaven. When it sees its home 
it will be all it wants. At home — forever at 
home, in our Father's house, will be enough. 
A wounded Confederate soldier, lying in a 
hospital, longed to get home, and see his dear 
mother. After long weeks he was allowed to 
go. He went by rail as far as he could. Then 
emaciated and crippled, he started afoot over 
the country toward home. He would give out 
by the way, and stop to rest. The thought of 
home and mother would nerve and strengthen 
him, and he would renew his journey. Finally 
he reached the familiar scenes of the neighbor- 



182 The Exodus From Death. 

hood, and tlieii came in sight of the dear old 
home. There it stood just as he left it. As 
he drew near, worn and weary, his mother saw 
him, and knew her boy. With a mother's 
overflowing heart, she hastened out to meet him. 
They met at the gate, and as the poor boy, in 
tears, fell in his mother's arms, he cried: 
"Home and mother." And as the dear mother 
wiped the tears from the eyes of her soldier 
boy, she said with all the tenderness of a 
mother's heart : "At home, my boy 1 at home, 
my boy!" That was enough. Oh, the joy oi 
being at home in heaven ! At home forever ! 

And the joy in the meetings there! Meet- 
ing the Saviour — the Eedeemer. This is the 
crowning object of religious hope. The rap- 
ture of that sight cannot be foreknown. If 
seeing him through a glass darkly now, fills the 
soul, at times, with unutterable joy, what must 
it be to see him face to face! We may think 
about an absent person, but it is not like seeing 
him. What must it be to look on the glorious 
Person of our Eedeemer! And then he will 
recognize every one as the purchased of his 
blood ; and speak to, and welcome every one — 
call each one by name. "I have called thee by 
thy name." And it is said that he will then 
do what I have never been able to take in — it 



The Great Meeting in the Heavenly Zion. 183 

is too much for me. It is written : "And God 
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." I 
can understand how a creature could do that — 
how an angel could — how that mother could. 
But that the Almighty God, the glorious Re- 
deemer would do that ? is overwhelming to the 
adoring heart. How the act will bring the 
world of glory to its knees, shouting Alleluiahs ! 

Then the meeting with loved ones gone be- 
fore. Yes, we are to meet again. What a 
mockery were life, without this hope! We 
are to meet and know one another there. What 
joy would there be in strangers meeting? I 
expect to see and know my mother there. How 
many farewells have been uttered over the 
grave ! How many vacant places have been 
left in our homes ! How many familiar voices 
and footfalls are heard no more here! What 
joy it will be for all earth's parted ones to meet 
in our Father's house, where partings are no 
more! 

And it is everlasting joy. Our joy is tem- 
porary here. There, it is to have no end. It 
is "life eternal," and the joy must be eternal. 
Now, conceive fulness of joy, and that lasting 
forever and ever, and you have it. The text 
says, "Sorrow and sighing shall flee away." 
No wonder. They cannot stand the Light, 



184 The Exodus From Death. 

Blessedness and Glory of heaven. It is Day 
now — God's Day, that is to have no end. 
Songs and joy are now filling heaven. No 
wonder "sorrow and sighing/' like night-birds 
— like the bats and owls of the night of sin — 
now "flee away." They do not belong to the 
day, to heaven, and they go to their home in 
eternal Night. 

Are we going to that great Meeting ? Could 
we afford to miss it ? Glorious meeting — 

"Where the saints of all ages in harmony meet, 
Their Savior and brethren transported to greet, 
While the anthems of rapture unceasingly roll, 
And the smile of the Lord is the feast of the soul." 



The Glory of Heaven. 185 



The Glory of Heaven. 



"And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solo- 
mon's wisdom, and the house that he had built, and 
the meat of his table, and the sitting* of his servants, 
and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, 
and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went 
up into the house of the Lord ; there was no more 
spirit in her. And she said to the king, It was a true 
report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts, and 
of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believed not the words, 
until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, 
the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity 
exceedeth the fame which I heard." — 1 Kings 10: 4-7. 

" Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God." 
— Ps. 87: 3. 

THESE words refer first to the glory of 
Solomon, and of mount Zion. A higher 
application is made of the words in the 
jSTew Testament. There they are made to 
point to One greater than Solomon — even to 
the Son of God. We read : "The queen of the 
south shall rise up in the judgment with this 
generation, and shall condemn it : for she came 
from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear 
the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater 
than Solomon is here." But beneath both of 



186 The Exodus From Death. 

these views is a more profound lesson. As the 
reign of David with its wars of conquest typi- 
fied the reign of Christ in the conquests of his 
earthly kingdom, and as the peaceful reign of 
Solomon that followed typified the reign of 
Christ in his heavenly kingdom, therefore the 
words of the text may finally foreshadow the 
glory of the Son of man in the heavenly Zion. 
We have heard the fame thereof, but the half 
has not been told. If the reality in the case of 
the earthly, exceeded the report which had 
reached the queen, much more will the reality 
of the heavenly exceed the fame which has 
reached our ears. 

There are some subjects of revelation that we 
can only know in part now — there are some 
amazing., transcendent things in the 1 Bible that 
it were wise for us to defer to the clearer light, 
ampler disclosures, and undimmed study of the 
future life. But we will think and talk of the 
deep things of God's word, so far as we can 
understand them. If we go astray on them it 
is an error of the head^ not of the heart. 
Among the wonderful truths surpassing our 
comprehension, yet so dear to us that we love 
to think and talk of them, are the "glorious 
things spoken of the city of God." Let us 
today humbly and joyfully study these things 



The Glory of Heaven. 187 

as presented in the texts before us. The sub- 
ject suggested by the words is: Tine Glory of 
Heaven. 

I. THE REPORTED GLORY OF HEAVEN. 

It was a surpassing report the queen heard. 
It was more than she could believe. She said : 
"I believed not the words, until I came, and 
mine eyes had seen it." Of the spiritual won- 
ders of religion here, and hereafter, it is writ- 
ten : "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
have entered into the heart of man, the things 
which God hath prepared for them that love 
him." The Spirit reveals them to the saved; 
but they surpass anything seen, heard or con- 
ceived by the natural man. 

And this reported glory is widely circulated. 
The queen heard it in "the uttermost parts of 
the earth." It was too great to be confined to 
any bounds — it went to the ends of the earth. 
ISTor could it be confined to the earth. As the 
report has in it the fame of the Divine Solomon, 
it must have spread as wide as his universal 
supremacy. As he has "a name which is above 
every name" — as he is exalted over "all things 
in heaven, in earth, and under the earth," there- 
fore, the news of his fame and glory must have 
gone everywhere over the universe. 



188 The Exodus From Death. 

1. The reported fames of the King. The 
wisdom of One greater than Solomon — Jesus. 
God said to Solomon when he asked for an 
understanding heart : "I have given thee a wise 
and understanding heart; so that there hath 
been none like thee before thee, neither after 
thee shall any arise like unto thee." Hence it 
is written: "And Solomon's wisdom excelled 
the wisdom of all the children of the east." 
But there is One greater than Solomon, and all 
the children of men. One in whom is "hid all 
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 
What about the wisdom of Jesus ? Let them 
come to him from afar — let the greatest intelli- 
gences come, with their "hard questions." He 
can answer them all — can solve all problems. 
It will be sufficient to name three issues with 
which He has to deal under the government of 
God that baffle and confound all created intel- 
lect. His solution of these gives him a name 
which is above every name. 

First, the justification of the guilty consist- 
ently with eternal law. ISTo one could answer 
the ancient question: "How can man be just 
with God ?" Man is guilty — - confessedly 
guilty. To justify him, which is to say, he is 
clear, is a contradiction. The law is inflexible, 
and will not clear the guilty ; therefore, it is a 



The Glory of Heaven, 189 

moral impossibility for the guilty to be justi- 
fied. But nothing is impossible with the King 
of Zion. He solves the problem. He takes the 
guilty sinner's place, and meets his liabilities. 
"The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all." 
Thus is guilt taken away, and the believing 
sinner justified. When the angels announced 
the plan they cried: "Glory to God in the 
highest." 

Second, salvation in harmony with the Will 
of God, and the will of man. The righteous 
sovereignty of God, and the responsible agency 
of man, must both be maintained. For with- 
out the first, salvation would be a failure, and 
without the second, man would be a machine. 
Jesus taught that his Father was the author of 
salvation, in purpose and fact, and from Alpha 
to Omega ; he also taught the voluntary act of 
the sinner in salvation. Through his liberty, 
not of force, is his salvation. Christ could say : 
"~No man can come unto me, except it were 
given unto him of my Father." Then say : "Ye 
will not come unto me, that ye might have life." 
In the one case the issue of salvation is put on 
God; in the other, the same issue, is put on 
man. Hear Him give the Divine side of truth 
in saying that, the saved are "all which the 
Father hath given me," then give the human 



190 The Exodus From Death. 

side in saying, the saved are "every one which 
seeth the Son 2 and believeth on him." Won- 
derful Christ, to save men through themselves ! 

A third issue is ruling evil so as to permit it 
to have its own way, and in having it, subserve 
and carry out the eternal purposes of God. 
Evil is here. It is not God's policy to destroy 
it. Jesus is wise enough to manage it — to 
take charge of it, and let it do its own wicked 
will, and at the same time work out the holy, 
sovereign will of God. That is wonderful. 
Judas had his own way in betraying the Son of 
man, yet when it was done it was found to be 
"according to the determinate counsel and fore- 
knowledge of God." What wisdom in the 
reigning Christ to make all the evil — the per- 
fectly free wickedness — of all the ages — of 
earth and hell — work out the glory of God. 
Such peerless wisdom exalts him above all the 
children of men. We have heard the fame of 
this all-wise Jesus, the King of heaven, and 
glory. 

2. The reported fame of His Metropolis — 
the Heavenly Zion. The cry of on-looking 
hope — the song of the home-bound souls of 
the ages, has been, "Glorious things are spoken 
of thee, O city of God." Of the earthly city, 
it was said: "Beautiful for situation, the joy 



The Glory of Heaven. 191 

of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides 
of the north, the city of the great King." Then 
what is to be said of the heavenly Zion ? 

Its situation. That must be surpassing. 
We select the best spots for our homes ; capitals 
are built on selected locations ; mount Zion had 
no equal as to situation in all the land. Jesus, 
the King, has selected the spot for His Capital. 
It is to be the scene of his glory, and the home 
of his saints forever. He had all places, lands, 
worlds from which to choose. The Lord has 
made his choice. We call it heaven. It is 
written of it: "The Lord hath chosen Zion: 
he hath desired it for his habitation. This is 
my resting-place forever: here will I dwell; 
for I have desired it." The place must be the 
most beautiful in the universe. It is the moral 
Moriah of creation. 

Its magnificence. Of this we may have 
some conception from John's vision. He says 
the angel said to him: "Come hither, I will 
show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb. 
And he carried me away in the spirit to a great 
and high mountain, and showed me that great 
city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of 
heaven from God, having the glory of God: 
and her light was like unto a stone most pre- 
cious, even like a jasper stone clear as crystal; 



192 The Exodus From Death. 

and had a wall great and high And 

the building of the wall of it was of jasper: 
and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 
And the foundations of the wall of the city 
were garnished with all manner of precious 

stones And the twelve gates were 

twelve pearls; every several gate was of one 
pearl : and the street of the city was pure gold, 
as it were transparent glass. And I saw no 
temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty, 
and the Lamb, are the temple of it. And the 
city had no need of the sun, neither of the 
moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did 
lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof/' 
Walls of jasper, gates of pearls, streets and 
palaces of gold, and all illumined by the glory 
of God! 

Then the immensity of this magnificent city. 
The angel measured it for John. "He meas- 
ured the city with the reed, twelve thousand 
furlongs; the length and the breadth and the 
height of it are equal/' It is foursquare, and 
as the whole is twelve thousand furlongs- — 
fifteen hundred miles — each side would be 
three thousand furlongs — three hundred and 
seventy-five miles. But John's vision was 
pictorial and symbolic, and cannot be literally 
and rigidly interpreted. It is more vast than 



The Glory of Heaven. 193 

the figures teach. They make it immense. 
According to them the city would far surpass 
in extent Nineveh, the greatest city of the 
ancient world, which was sixty miles in circum- 
ference. It would be far greater than London, 
the greatest city of modern times. New York, 
London, Berlin and Paris all combined would 
not fill half this immense Metropolis. But as 
John's is a symbolic vision, we cannot estimate 
from it the exact size of the wonderful city. 
As indefinite, it has no boundary lines, and we 
can only wonder at its vast proportions. Who 
knows but that it would hold a hundred Lon- 
dons? It has ample room for the "many 
mansions." 

Then it is impregnable. Mount Zion was 
impregnable in its day. "Walk about Zion, 
and go round about her : tell the towers thereof. 
Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her pal- 
aces; that ye may tell it to the generation 
following." This stronghold, defying assault, 
was to teach the impregnability of the spiritual 
Zion. We read : "As the mountains are round 
about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about 
his people, from henceforth even forever." 
Let everything else go down before sin and 
Satan, yet will the Zion of God, here, and for- 
ever hereafter, stand. Think about the walls, 



194 The Exodus From Death. 

and hills, and mountains that engirdle her. 
They are not material, but moral — not the 
temporary, but eternal. They are imperish- 
able, indestructible Attributes! "This God is 
our God forever and ever." 

3. The reported blessedness of His people*. 
Under the typical reign of Solomon it is said : 
"Judah and Israel were many, as the sand 
which is by the sea in multitude, eating and 
drinking and making merry." They "dwelt 
safely, every man under his vine and under his 
fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the 
days of Solomon." The queen exclaimed: 
"Happy are thy men, happy are these thy 
servants, who stand continually before thee, 
and that hear thy wisdom." But this is noth- 
ing in comparison with heavenly blessedness. 
There it is "fullness of joy, and pleasures for 
evermore." 

Think of the presence of the King of glory. 
The immediate, full and overwhelming pres- 
ence of Him whom the soul loveth. Then 
"He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell 
among them." "And they shall see his face; 
and his name shall be in their foreheads. And 
there shall be no night there: and they need 
no candle, neither light of the sun; for the 



The Glory of Heaven. 195 

Lord God giveth them light: and they shall 
reign forever and ever." 

Then the communion of saints. It is blessed 
for saints to meet on earth, amidst the imper- 
fections of sin. In heaven they all meet with- 
out sin. "Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, 
and all the prophets," and the blood-washed of 
the ages, "from the east and from the west, and 
from the north, and from the south," have come 
together to rejoice forever. What a blessing 
to meet and be with Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abra- 
ham, David, Solomon, Isaiah and Paul. How 
unspeakable then to meet again our lost dead — 
our friends, fathers, mothers and children. 
Yes, to rejoin them, look into their faces again, 
to be parted no more ! 

And their perfect satisfaction. They neither 
need nor want any more. Robert Hall's idea 
of heaven was — rest. Wilberf orce thought of 
it as — love. David said, "satisfied." "They 
shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; 
neither shall the sun light on them, nor any 
heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of 
the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them 
unto living fountains of waters : and God shall 
wipe away all tears from their eyes." What 
an unspeakable picture — God wiping away 
the tears of his people forever ! 



196 The Exodus From Death. 

Their complete and final exemption from all 
evil. We read: "And there shall be no more 
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall 
there be any more pain : for the former things 
are passed away." Exempt from sin, and all 
its dark train forever. That is glory. The 
immortal hosts, through all eternity, are to 
know no sin, nor death, nor sorrow ! This is a 
great and blessed report. 

We have heard of this heavenly glory. It is 
so great that sometimes our faith wavers, and 
hope trembles. Still it is the food of our 
thoughts, the dream of our lives, the inspira- 
tion of our songs, and the crown of our immor- 
tal hope. But it is only the report come to us. 
What of the reality ? 

II. THE GLORY EXCEEDS THE REPORTED 
FAME. 

The soul has heard glowing reports of 
heaven. Here in its own country, amidst the 
wrecks and desolations of sin — the blasted 
hopes, the sorrows, tears, groans and graves — 
here, it has listened and heard of that enraptur- 
ing glory. And it has taken the best things 
in its knowledge to embody its transcendent 
conceptions; it has drawn on its richest and 
rarest ideals to represent the gorgeous magnifi- 



The Glory of Heaven. 197 

cence of the heavenly Zion ; it has dreamed — 
dreamed in rapture — and taken the weird, 
matchless creations of its rapturous dreams to 
dress its resplendent visions of the city of God. 
But, at last, when the soul shall stand face to 
face with the amazing, overpowering reality — 
when its eyes shall see and look upon the un- 
created glories of heaven, it will cry: "The 
half was not told me." Yes, the reality exceeds 
the report. If "truth is stranger than fiction," 
then heaven surpasses in its glory any concep- 
tion we have ever had, or report we have ever 
heard. There are reasons for this. Note 
some of them. 

The report about heaven cannot equal the 
reality. The hearing is not like the sight of a 
thing. No report is equal to the truth. Take 
Niagara, that wonder of nature. Whose hear- 
ing about its marvelous grandeur has ever been 
equal to the sight ? Or take a great city — 
New York, or London. No description of its 
magnificence comes up to the reality. You 
must sees to realize the fullness of the truth. 
The report is second-hand, meager and unreal; 
but when the eyes see, then the soul takes in 
fully the original and living reality. The best, 
highest and greatest reports of heaven, in the 
nature of the case, fall far short of the truth. 



198 The Exodus From Death. 

No language is adequate to convey the glory 
of heaven. Language as the vehicle of thought 
is the imagery in which it expresses itself, the 
drapery in which it dresses its creations, the 
material out of which it builds its ideals. 
Thought does not reach out like the empty hand 
to receive things. It takes its vessels in words 
or symbols and holds them up to receive in. 
It takes a city — Mount Zion — and holds it 
up, and in it conceives and receives the city of 
God. But heaven is too spiritual in truth, and 
too transcendent in glory, to be caught and held 
and told in meagre human speech, and imper- 
fect earthly symbols. It is God's eternal Idea 
and Ideal of Glory, forever unutterable — 
glory which no earthly words or symbolism can 
ever translate. 

IsTor can the capacity of mind take in the 
glory of heaven. Mind is wonderful, but not 
capacious enough to hold the glory of the heavr 
enly Zion. Not only all language and symbols 
fail, but the mind itself breaks down here — is 
too inadequate to grasp the truth. It is too 
small, tiny, diminutive to take in the mammoth 
dimensions of heavenly glory. Indeed, it 
would be like putting an ocean in a tumbler, a 
world in a hand. As the visions of that glory 
came on John he staggered and fell, over- 



The Glory of Heaven. 199 

whelmed. As the Spirit helped him up, and 
opened his understanding, he took in, in the 
dim earthly counterpart, the glory of the heav- 
enly reality. But the symbolism in the earthly 
Zion, magnificent as it is, is no adequate coun- 
terpart of the surpassing and graspless splen- 
dors and wonders of heaven. 

III. WHAT THIS GLORY IN REALITY IS. 

I have said it cannot be told nor conceived. 
Then I do not mean to attempt its conception 
or conveyance. The queen of Sheba waited 
till she saw Solomon's glory before she spoke; 
and when she saw it, "there was no spirit in 
her"; and when she spoke, she said: "The 
half was not told me." We must wait till we 
go to our Father's house, and our ears hear 
the wisdom of the King, and our eyes see the 
glory of Zion, before we can know or tell the 
reality. But I will say two things : 

First, the glory of heaven is all that God can 
make it. Nothing more nor greater could be 
said. Heaven is all that God in his infinite 
wisdom, almighty power, and boundless re- 
sources can make it. That brings up over- 
whelming suggestions ! The thought drowns 
us ! With all wisdom, all power, all resources, 
what can He not do ? As samples of His ere- 



200 The Exodus From Death. 

ative power, we have the worlds, suns and 
swarming constellations — of His skill, we 
have all the delicate and sublime fashions of 
beauty in the universe. With boundless mate- 
rial and infinite skill what an Architect is the 
Almighty God, and what must be the glory of 
the holy City 1 

Second, the glory of heaven is all that the 
Son { of God deserves. There is no limit to this. 
Here, again, we are overwhelmed. The glory 
of heaven is to be all that the infinite worth 
iness and matchless services of Jesus deserve. 
All He deserves in Himself — His adorable 
character, and in His matchless services. He 
is the Son of God, and King of glory, by birth 
and nature. His divine greatness entitles 
Him to all the Father can do. "The King of 
kings, and Lord of lords/' should and will have 
a Capital worthy of Him. Then think of His 
services for God and man — to maintain the 
throne and honor of the Father, and to save 
men from eternal ruin. Think of the stupen- 
dous undertaking against sin and death. His 
humiliation, life, suffering, blood, entitle Him 
to "divide the spoil with the strong," Hear 
the inspired story of the peerless One : "Being 
in the form of God, he thought it not robbery 
to be equal with God. But made himself of no 



The Glory of Heaven. 201 

reputation, and took upon him the form of a 
servant, and was made in the likeness of men : 
and being found in fashion as a man, he hum- 
bled himself, and became obedient unto death, 
even the death of the cross. Wherefore God 
also hath highly exalted him and given him a 
name which is above every name: that at the 
name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things 
in heaven, and things in earth, and things 
under the earth : and that every tongue should 
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory 
of God the Father." Heaven will be worthy 
of the Lamb that was slain, who is also the 
King of glory. According to the measure of 
His deserts — according to the greatness of 
His dying love, and the magnitude of His vic- 
tory over sin and death, should He, and will 
He, be crowned with heavenly glory. Heaven 
will be all that the wealth of God's love can 
make it. 

Let us be satisfied, for the present, with these 
two thoughts. It is enough that Heaven will 
be all that the Power, and all that the Love of 
God can make it. Montgomery sang the hope 
of Christianity — 

" When shall these eyes thy heaven-built walls 
And pearly gates behold? 
Thy bulwarks with salvation strong 
And streets of shining gold? 



202 The Exodus From Deatn. 

" O, when, thou city of my God, 
Shall I thy courts ascend, 
Where congregations ne'er break up, 
And Sabbaths have no end? 

" There happier bowers than Eden's bloom, 
Nor sin nor sorrow know: 
Blest seats! through rude and stormy scenes 
I onward press to you." 

Have we the great and unspeakable hope of 
seeing heaven ? of looking with our eyes upon 
the King, and upon the glories of the city of 
God ? Oh, have we this priceless and precious 
hope ? I put the question to your souls, and to 
mine. Have you this hope, my soul ? Answer. 
It does not say, yes, nor no. But with a sweet 
assurance it reaches forth the trembling hand 
of hope, and says : "I feel heaven is to be mine 
through amazing grace. I do not deserve it. 
I am so unworthy of it. It is for Jesus' sake. 
He bought it for me. Oh, how could it be — 
how could it be ? He opened heaven for me in 
his death." 

" I read in the Bible the wonderful story 
How Jesus was nailed on the tree, 
And how in bitterest agony dying 
He opened that country to me. " 

O my soul, now, and evermore, "Crown Him 
Lord of all." 



Heaven on Earth. 203 



Heaven on Earth. 



11 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the 
first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and 
there was no more sea. 

"And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, 
coming- down from God out of heaven, prepared as a 
bride adorned for her husband. 

"And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying*, 
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he 
will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, 
and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 

' ' And God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sor- 
row, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; 
for the former things are passed away." — Rev. 21: 1-4. 

PEOPHECY points us to a coming Era of 
transcendent glory. Where does the 
vision locate the scene of this future and 
eternal economy ? Is it to be in some far-away 2 
unknown region? or is it to be here on the 
earth ? John's words point to our planet as the 
scene of heavenly blessedness. And as we stand 
with the holy seer, and look forth to the things 
which are to be, we have more exalted concep- 
tions of the vast plans of God, and more correct 
views of the earth's final destiny. Daniel was 



204 The Exodus From Death. 

permitted to look down through the stirring 
scenes of Time, and his great visions troubled 
him. They were yet unexplained. He called 
them "wonders." He saw the symbolic Forms 
of imposing Dynasties moving before him — 
saw the shadows of giant Economies slowly fol- 
lowing one upon another , and he was filled with 
awe, and said : "What shall be the end of these 
things ?" Hear one of his visions : "I saw in 
the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son 
of man came with the clouds of heaven, and 
came to the Ancient of days, and they brought 
him near before him. And there was given 
him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that 
all people, nations, and languages should serve 
him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, 
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom 
that which shall not be destroyed. I Daniel 
was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my 
body, and the visions of my head troubled me. 
I came near unto one of them that stood by, and 
asked him the truth of all this. So he told 
me, and made me know the interpretation of 
the things. These great beasts, which are four, 
are four kings, which shall arise out of the 
earth. But the saints of the Most High shall 
take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for- 
ever, even forever and ever." This possession 



Heaven on Earth. 205 

of the earth forever and ever by the saints, is 
the closing scene in Daniel's vision. John's 
vision corresponds with it. He sees the final 
Era of the earth's history. In it the saints 
take possession of their eternal home. 

We must be cautious in dealing with un- 
fulfilled prophecy. So many theories of the 
coming "end of the world" have been wrecked 
that they should serve as warnings to us. But 
prophecy is a part of the Word of God, and 
must be reverently studied. We will not study 
"the time of the end." This is not revealed, 
and cannot be known. But let us weigh the 
scriptures, and get the probabilities in refer- 
ence to where the future home of the saints is 
to be. What I shall say is not certain truth, 
like things that have come to pass, but probable 
truth, being yet in unfulfilled prophecy. The 
theme is : Heaven on Earth. 

I. THE EARTH RENEWED. 

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth ; 
for the first heaven and the first earth were 
passed away; and there was no more sea." 
These words teach that the earth is to have a 
great renewal, and to come forth fitted for an 
endless economy. It may be asked: Do the 
scriptures teach that the earth is to be destroyed 



206 The Exodus From Death. 

— annihilated ? or do they teach that it is to 
be renovated and made eternal ? 

Is the earth to be destroyed ? I use the word 
destroy as the antithesis of create. Is it to be 
reduced back to nothing? The strongest pas- 
sages that can be adduced in support of this 
theory are in Matthew and Peter. The words 
in Matthew are : "Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but my words shall not pass away." 
These words mean that the heaven and earth in 
their present form and order are to pass away. 
There is to be a redressing and rearrangement 
of the worlds. The psalmist gives us the same 
thought : "Of old hast thou laid the foundation 
of the earth ; and the heavens are the work of 
thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt 
endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a 
garment ; as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, 
and they shall be changed." The "perishing" 
here is like the wearing out of old clothes — the 
body remains, casting off its worn suit, and 
putting on its new. "They shall be changed" 

— that is, renovated. The passage in Peter 
is : "The day of the Lord will come as a thief 
in the night; in the which the heavens shall 
pass away with a great noise, and the elements 
shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and 
the works that are therein shall be burned up." 



Heaven on Earth. 207 

(2 Peter 3: 10.) Peter explains himself. 
He has just compared the destruction to come 
with the destruction in the days of Noah by the 
flood. He says: "That by the word of God 
the heavens were of old, and the earth standing 
out of the water and in the water ; whereby the 
world that then was, being overflowed with 
water, perished : but the heavens and the earth, 
which are now, by the same word are kept in 
store, reserved unto fire against the day of judg- 
ment and perdition of ungodly men." Peter 
means that the earth is to be purified by its 
baptism in fire. He says the earth "perished" 
in the flood — but afterward it emerges from 
its baptism, a new world. So, also, after the 
final "burning up" we are to see a "new heaven 
and new earth" arise from the ashes. Peter 
teaches this. He says: "Nevertheless we, ac- 
cording to his promise, look for new heavens 
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- 
ness." 

Can we affirm the future eternity of the 
material globe? It is not contrary to reason. 
Indeed, it is a reasonable conclusion. Look at 
the subject from the view of economy. What 
vast values are involved in the perpetuity of 
the earth. After his miracle of feeding the 
multitude, the great Teacher said : "Gather up 



208 The Exodus From Death. 

the fragments that remain, that nothing be 
lost/' But what are fragments of bread, to 
the solid globe? If bread ought to be saved, 
ought not the world to be saved? Will He 
who taught economy to men in trifling affairs, 
disregard it himself in the transcending affair 
of preserving the earth ? Will He burn it up, 
and throw the ashes away ? 

And reason supports the affirmation in view 
of the universal law of chemical action on mat- 
ter. The law of matter is the law of change — 
the decomposition of old bodies, and then the 
combination of elements in new formations. 
Nothing is destroyed. Old forms dissolve, 
that new ones may crystallize. The new is the 
old under another form. No matter — not a 
particle — has been annihilated; it has only 
been undergoing organic changes — dying and 
assuming new forms. If it has been God's 
order for six thousand years to preserve all ele- 
mental matter amidst organic changes, destroy- 
ing nothing, may we not reasonably conclude 
that he will never destroy the material globe, 
but only change it ? 

The affirmation is supported by analogy — 
the analogy afforded in the renewal of man. 
A saved man is said to be changed, renewed. 
This renewal is represented as a destroying, a 



Heaven on Earth. 209 

perishing of the natural man. Yet by this re- 
newal the man becomes immortal. By analogy 
destroying, perishing, passing away, as applied 
to the earth only refer to its renewal — its re- 
demption from the curse of sin. It is to be 
clothed with immortality. 

The Scriptures support the theory of the 
earth's eternity. It is involved in the promise 
to Abraham. God called him out of his 
country into the land of Canaan, and said to 
him: "I will give unto thee, and to thy seed 
after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, 
all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting pos- 
session." We read : "By faith he sojourned in 
the land of promise, as in a strange country." 
He lived and died in it. But after he died, and 
after the Canaanites were destroyed, his seed 
inherited the land. Does not this foreshadow 
the larger truth that the saints shall finally 
inherit the earth wherein they are now stran- 
gers ? The inspired commentary on this 
passage, Romans 4 : 13, gives this enlarged view 
of the promise — it is : "The promise that he 
should inherit the world." Then "the world" 
is in the future inheritance of the saints. 
Again it is repeatedly written in the Scriptures 
that "the saints shall inherit the earth," and 
that "their inheritance (which is the earth) 



210 The Exodus From Death. 

shall be forever." They do not now inherit it, 
nor will they under the present order of things. 
Then it must be in the great Future that they 
are to have it. Still again, in John's closing 
vision, Revelation 22, we see an abiding earth, 
as Paradise restored, and the saints on it, and 
it is said : "They shall reign forever and ever." 
Therefore, "the new heaven and new earth," 
are the old heaven and old earth renewed and 
renovated — coming forth out of the baptism 
in fire changed into Eden purity, perfection 
and glory, thenceforth to be the scene of an 
endless economy. 

II. THE SAINTS POSSESSING THE EARTH AS 
THEIR HEAVENLY HOME. 

"And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jeru- 
salem, coming down from God out of heaven, 
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." 
The promise through the ages is fulfilled — the 
saints inherit their everlasting home. God's 
promise never fails. It may be long deferred ; 
we may have to wait for it through life, and 
then die without receiving it — the worthies of 
old are said to have "died in faith, not having 
received the promises" ; and then we may have 
to lie in the grave and wait, sleep on and on 
while the lapsing ages roll over our dust; but 



Heaven on Earth. 211 

at last the promise will come — "God has spoken 
it, and He will bring it to pass." God does not 
work by the day, nor week, nor year, but by the 
vast centuries. He has said : "The saints shall 
inherit the earth." Now they take it. 

"The holy city, new Jerusalem," is a symbolic 
representation of "the church of the firstborn," 
the bride of Christ. Here she descends like a 
city from God. It was a magnificent scene! 
The final Judgment has closed, the earth has 
been renovated, and now "the city which hath 
foundations, whose builder and maker is God," 
like a celestial bride descends out of heaven! 
She is to reign with Christ forever. To under- 
stand this final age of glory, we must look back. 
The earth has had its different dispensations, 
called ages. From the Creation to the Flood 
was the first age. That was the Patriarchal 
economy. In it "the earth was filled with vio- 
lence" — "all flesh had corrupted his w T ay." It 
was the youth-time of sin's reign, and it rev- 
eled, producing giants, men of renown in iniq- 
uity. It continued over sixteen hundred years 
— perhaps much longer. From the Flood to 
the Advent of Christ was another age. That 
was called the Jewish economy — the time of 
the Law and the Prophets. It was the econ- 
omy of shadows — grace and truth given in 



212 The Exodus From Death. 

types. It lasted over twenty-three hundred 
years. From the First to the Second Advent 
of Christ is another age. This is our age — 
the age of grace. It is called the Christian 
dispensation. In it is the final conflict with 
sin. Sin, in the face of a completed revelation, 
and an exalted Christ, is now making its last 
struggle. Christ reigns to overthrow sin. It 
is written : "He must reign till he hath put all 
enemies under his feet. The last enemy that 
shall be destroyed is death." The close of this 
age is yet future. We do not know when it 
will be, nor do we sufficiently understand 
prophetic Scriptures to give the order of the 
transcendent events foretold — the Coming, 
the Resurrection, the Judgment, the Burning 
of the earth. Will they be simultaneous? 
The Scriptures seem to place them all at the 
second Advent. We read: "When the Son of 
man shall come in his glory, and all the holy 
angels with him, then shall he sit upon the 
throne of his glory. And before him shall be 
gathered all nations; and he shall separate 
them." Here the Judgment is at his coming. 
Again: "I charge thee before God, and the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick 
and the dead at his appearing and kingdom." 
Here we have the Resurrection — in "the 



Heaven on Earth. 213 

dead" — and the Judgment at his coming. 
Still again we read "Looking for and hastening 
the coming of the day of God, wherein the 
heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the 
elements shall melt with fervent heat." In a 
preceding verse he also says: "the earth shall 
be burned up." Therefore, it seems that 
all these great events take place at the second 
coming of Christ. The scene of the text fol- 
lows them. 

The saints possess the earth in the city of 
promise — the eternal Zion. How fit. We 
erect monuments on battlefields. God erects 
the homes of immortality on the battlefield of 
sin. The city of Life will send up its spires on 
the wrested, ransomed soil of death. God will 
send down Heaven's immortal stone to build 
the monumental mansions of Life on the tombs 
of sin. Then Jerusalem will be "an eternal 
excellency," and the saints "shall inherit the 
land forever." 

How fit it is that the earth should be the 
home of the saints. That redeemed bodies 
should live on redeemed soil — the soil whence 
they came. Yes, may not this old home be the 
new home — the soul's bright home? How 
sweet to think that here where they labored, 
they will rest — here where they wept, they 



214 The Exodus From Death. 

will rejoice — here where they suffered, they 
will triumph — here where they died, they will 
live forever ! Blessed hope ! 

III. THE HOME OF THE SAINTS THE DWELL- 
ING-PLACE OF GOD. 

"And I heard a great voice out of heaven 
saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with 
men, and he will dwell with them, and they 
shall be his people, and God himself shall be 
with them, and be their God." That God, who 
is a Spirit subsisting in glory inapproachable, 
would manifest Himself in some visible Hab- 
itation, has been dimly foreshadowed through 
the economies of revelation. The Tabernacle 
and Temple, houses built with hands, were 
made sacred by the descending Cloud, which 
was a symbol of the Divine Presence. The 
Lord said of the Tabernacle: "There will I 
meet with the children of Israel, and the taber- 
nacle shall be sanctified by my glory. And I 
will dwell among the children of Israel, and 
will be their God." When the Temple was 
dedicated, it is written : "The priests could not 
stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for 
the glory of the Lord had filled the house of 
God." The same great truth is intimated in 
the choice of Mount Zion. "For the Lord hath 



Heaven on Earth. 215 

chosen Zion; he hath desired it for a habita- 
tion. This is my rest forever; here will I 
dwell; for I have desired it." In the Incarna- 
tion these intimations are more fully brought 
out in the glory of God filling a man — a 
human Tabernacle. And here we have God 
linking Himself, not only to man, but to the 
earth. In the Body of Jesus, matter, a part 
of the earth, has been immortalized, deified! 
and, raised to the throne on High, awaits the 
triumphant return. These manifestations are 
prophetic. They point to a future "dwelling 
with men" — a final and complete Theophany. 

God, in the Redeemer, the divine Bride- 
groom, is to make his glorious Home among his 
people. On high they have been watching the 
development of this blessed mystery, and when 
it is fully revealed, a great voice is heard out 
of heaven saying: "Behold, the tabernacle of 
God is with men." Doubtless it is in the glori- 
fied Humanity of the Son that God appears and 
dwells with his people. 

That God should make the earth his eternal 
dwelling-place is wonderful, but not incredible. 
Where else has He done so much? On what 
other planet has He met and overthrown sin ? 
To what other world has He given His only 
begotten Son? On what other field has grace 



216 The Exodus From Death, 

made such mammoth expenditures? Does the 
thought appear incongruous in view of the 
infinity of God and the insignificance of the 
earth. Is not the earth unfit for the Home of 
the great God? But cannot God glorify it? 
As the redemption of man after the fall lifts 
him higher — lifts him above all the creatures 
of God, so, also, may not the earth emerge from 
the curse of sin outshining all the spheres ? 
May she not come out of sin the sainted planet 
among the sisterhood of worlds ? It is not in- 
credible that God should make the earth the 
glorious Metropolis of Immortality. 

It is fit that Christ should dwell on his blood- 
bought domains. The scene of his humiliation 
should be the scene of his exaltation. Here 
where he was despised, he should reign. Here 
where they crowned him with thorns, he should 
be crowned with glory. The field of his 
wondrous love should be the theatre of his 
coronation, and reign, and praise forever. 
Yes, here on earth should the alleluiahs to the 
Lamb be heard. Let this be the eternal Zion, 
and here let the Ark be brought to rest. Here 
where he loved and bled let him be enthroned, 
and wear the diadem of glory forever. Let the 
city come down here from God out of heaven 
prepared for habitation, and to this Zion let 



Heaven on Earth. 217 

the saints bring the mighty conqueror of sin 
and death. Here let the watchers and the holy 
ones from above inquire: "Who comes in the 
roar of the distant multitude and the voice of 
great joy?" Here let the exulting saints cry: 
"Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye 
lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King 
of glory shall come in." And let it be here 
that the watchman shall mount the battlements 
of light, and demand: "Who is this king of 
glory?" And here in hearing of the hushed 
heavens and earth let all ransomed Israel reply : 
"The Lord of hosts" — he who loved and died 
and saved — "he is the King of glory." Yes, 
yes, let it be on this ransomed earth, the battle- 
field of sin, that his ransomed people, "Crown 
him Lord of all." 

What a Home, with God the Eedeemer dwell- 
ing in it forever! "And I saw no temple 
therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the 
Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had 
no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine 
in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and 
the Lamb is the light thereof." 

IV. THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE WORLD TO 
COME. 

"And God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes; and there shall be no more death, 



218 The Exodus From Death. 

neither sorrow, neither crying, neither shall 
there be any more pain : for the former things 
are passed away." What a cloud, what "black- 
ness of darkness" these words lift from the sin- 
cursed earth! When "the former things are 
passed away," what a train, hideous train of 
miseries disappear ! and what surpassing bless- 
edness greets the vision! Life eternal, "with 
songs and everlasting joy," crown the scene. 

This terminal economy of the earth is to be 
sinless. Sin is the mother of all ills. As her 
dreadful brood have passed away, she has 
passed with them. Now, sin is everywhere. 
In every heart and the stricken soil of every 
land. No explorer has found a spot, on land 
or sea, where sin does not reign. But there is 
a time coming when sin will be no more. The 
time has come in the text. The redeemed hosts 
have heard from their great Deliverer, the 
blessed words: "This day have I rolled away 
the reproach of sin from off you." Sin is re- 
moved, and Eden is restored. 

It is a world without sorrow. As children 
of sin, we are now children of sorrow. The 
world is ever groaning with its weight of grief. 
"Ye shall have sorrow" is fulfilled in the expe- 
rience of all life. In the midst of the universal 
gloom, laughter is madness. But sorrow is 



Heaven on Earth. 219 

now over, and joy reigns. How touching the 
words: "And there shall be no night there." 
Night is put for sadness — light for joy. 
There is to be no sorrow there — not a cloud. 
Not a touch of grief will ever be felt. The 
heart, sad so long, will smile forever. No 
night! The skies of joy will be clear, and 
deep, and changeless as the glowing ether be- 
yond the clouds. The great promise is ful- 
filled: "I will see you again, and your heart 
shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from 
you." A world of universal and uninter- 
rupted rejoicing. What a scene! 

There will be no more tears. How gracious, 
and touching, and wonderful the picture given 
in the words: "And God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes !" That passes concep- 
tion in gracious greatness, and great gracious- 
ness! God wiping, as a mother with loving 
tenderness would do, the tears from the cheek 
of His child ! and saying : "You shall weep 
no more." It is written: "As one whom his 
mother comf orteth, so will I comfort you ; and 
ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." The 
divine compassion, loving and comforting com- 
passion, is compared to, or illustrated by, a 
mother's. Ah, how many sorrowing, weeping 
ones have been comforted by the maternal love. 



220 The Exodus From Death. 

What a wonderful story we will hear at last 
when the history of maternal love is given! 
How many tears it has dried! As we look 
backward how many a mother will we see wip- 
ing away the tears from her child. So will 
God dry up forever the tears of his people in 
that day. 

Nor will there be any more suffering. How 
much now fills the earth ! The pains of disease 
and the injuries of wrongs are forever racking 
the world. What a vast host we would have if 
all the sufferers were before us ! Their cryings 
float on every breeze. The scene of suffering 
made the Son of God weep. But there is to be 
— there now is — no more pain. No body, 
mind, nor heart feels the slightest pang. All 
are healed, and well, and blessed forever. 

And there is no more death. How long the 
tyrant has reigned, and with what despotism! 
How he has mown down the generations, carry- 
ing infancy, youth, manhood, as well as age 
into the grave. He has made the earth a vast 
tomb honeycombed with sepulchres. But his 
terrible reign is ended. With "the trump of 
God" his throne goes down forever. Those 
who have sung the song of hope : "We are going 
home, to die no more," now enter upon the 
great reality of immortality. What a life, 



Heaven on Earth. 221 

what a world it is as exempt from death ! An 
endless future stretches out with no death. No 
grave, no tomb, no corpse in all the great For- 
ever of God. The inscriptions on the founda- 
tions, and columns, and heights of the Mansions 
of Life will be : "To die no more — to die no 
more." 

What is Christian hope worth in view of 
such glory? What infinite value is in it! Is 
it not the chief concern? Standing on the 
Pisgah of Truth, and looking forth to the com- 
ing glory as our inheritance, we can sing — 
sing from the soul: 

"Lord, for those days we wait; those days 
Are in thy word foretold; 
Fly swifter, sun and stars, and bring 
This promised age of gold. 

" 'Amen,' with joy divine, let earth's 
Unnumbered myriads cry; 
'Amen,' with joy divine, let heaven's 
Unnumbered choirs reply!" 



222 The JExodus From Death. 



Eternity. 



" The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither 
for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but 
the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and 
thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; 
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord 
shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy 
mourning shall be ended." — Isa. 60: 19, 20. 

" He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they 
shall never see light." — Ps. 49: 19. 

HERE are two great visions — visions of 
Eternity. In the one is endless Day, 
in the other endless Night. What is 
Eternity? Isaiah illustrates it by time. He 
says when the sun of day, and the moon of 
night, that dispense time, are gone, and God 
becomes the Sun of the soul's firmament, it will 
be Eternity. 

All truth is profitable. We are to "preach 
the word." The subject of eternity is a part, 
and a large part, of the word of God. It is 
found all through the Scriptures from Moses to 
John. We must not omit it because we cannot 
comprehend it. Many of the doctrines we 
preach are incomprehensible. 



Eternity. 223 

Isaiah in his vision does not take us away 
from the known — he does not remove us from 
under heaven, and place us outside of thq 
known, and there hold before our minds the 
vast, abstract truth of eternity. In that case 
we could have no conception of it. We would 
have nothing to go by, to think by. But the 
prophet keeps us under the firmament, with its 
great lights, dispensing "seasons, and days, and 
years. " And he teaches that this firmament 
we see with its revolving worlds is not always 
to be above us. There is to be a new heaven. 
The heaven we now have and see is temporal 
and symbolic. Behind it is another Firma- 
ment, and another Sun. The one we see 
enables us to think about the one we cannot see. 
The text carries us in prophetic vision into the 
great future where and when the present 
heaven is gone, and points us to a heaven that 
has no revolving worlds — no rising nor setting 
sun — points us to a Sun that never sets ; and 
the reign of that Sun is Eternity. 

The Scriptures give us the beginning and 
end of time. It begins with the establishment 
of the solar system, and ends with its dissolu- 
tion. The difference between cosmical and 
solar light, and the priority of the former, Gen- 
esis 1 : 3, with verse 14 , have not been over- 



224 The Exodus From Death. 

looked in this theory; but they do not affect 
the view that time began with solar measure- 
ment. Chronology starts when the machinery 
of the revolving worlds is put in motion, and 
stops when it is destroyed. The beginning of 
time is given in these words : "And God said, 
Let there be light : and there was light. And 
God saw the light, that it was good; and God 
divided the light from the darkness. And God 
called the light Day, and the darkness he called 
Night. And the evening and the morning 
were the first day." (Gen. 1: 3-5.) Here, 
and following to the "third day," are periods 
having as yet only cosmical light. Then we 
read: "And God said, Let there be lights in 
the firmament of the heaven to divide the day 
from the night ; and let them be for signs, and 
for seasons, and for days and years: and let 
them be for lights in the firmament of the 
heaven to give light upon the earth : and it was 
so. And God made two great lights; the 
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser 
light to rule the night : he made the stars also. 
And God set them in the firmament of the 
heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule 
over the day and over the night, and to divide 
the light from the darkness : and God saw that 



Eternity. 225 

it was good." (Gen. 1: 14-18.) Here the 
"lights" give us "days and years." 

In John's vision we have the end of time: 
"And I saw a great white throne, and him that 
sat on it, from whose face the earth and the 
heaven fled away; and there was found no 

place for them And I saw a new 

heaven and new earth : for the first heaven and 

the first earth were passed away And 

there shall be no night there; and they need 
no candle, neither light of the sun; for the 
Lord God giveth them light; and they shall 
reign forever and ever." (Eev. 20 : 11 ; 21 : 1 ; 
22: 5.) The passing of "the earth and the 
heaven" is the end of time. 

We see that the present arrangement of the 
heavens is for the measurement of time. The 
solar system forms a great natural clock. It 
keeps time for the ages. When this celestial 
time-keeper is destroyed — when its vast ma- 
chinery is broken and scattered in dissolving 
worlds, time will be at an end. Then we will 
be thrown back upon its Original, and Arche- 
type — upon God. In God, in his uncreated and 
unending Life, we have the eternal Standard 
of reckoning: "7 am Alpha and Omega, the 
beginning and the end." In the Scriptures 
before us the old heavens disappear, and a new 



226 The Exodus From Death. 

firmament bursts upon us ; the old sun is gone, 
and a new Sun succeeds to the celestial throne ; 
the old light has faded out, and a surpassing 
glory illumines the skies; the old day is over, 
and a new Day, one that has no night, is come. 
It is Eternity now. "Thy sun shall no more — 
no more forever — go down." Duration with- 
out, and unmeasured by the material and per- 
ishing heavens — duration measured by an 
eternal Sun — that is Eternity so far as we 
can know it. We must keep our ground, our 
foothold on the known. If we step off into 
the vast unknown — if we attempt to think of 
Eternity independently of data afforded by 
time, our minds will be bewildered and will 
shrink back from the great deep. Then let us 
study Eternity by time — the unknown by the 
known — take the things of the one, and by 
them study the things of the other. The theme 
is : Eternity. 

I. ETERNITY STUDIED IN THE MOTION 
OF TIME. 

In time we have ceaseless motion. As suc- 
cessive duration it consists in continuous 
movement. This idea of motion in time we 
know. We have observed it, and can definitely 
conceive it. It has a stupendous correlate, 



Eternity, 227 

antonym; but it lies beyond the range of our 
knowledge. Time, as succession, is the order 
of things as we now have it. Eternity stands 
over against time. As a great counter order 
it must be studied by analogy — the analogy of 
correlation. It is comparison by antithesis. 

Motion as an element of the idea of time. 
This feature of movement is inseparable from 
the conception of time. We cannot think of 
time without thinking of motion. It is a basal 
idea of time. It is at the foundation of both 
natural and artificial time. 

Take natural time. What is it? It is the 
days and nights, weeks and months, seasons and 
years. Where do we get them? From the 
heavenly time-keeper — the great clock of 
nature. How does it give them? By motion 

— the revolution of the earth and the heavenly 
bodies. The earth revolving on its axis gives 
us day and night; the moon revolving round 
the earth gives us months; the earth revolving 
round the sun gives us years. 

Take artificial time. What is it? It is 
time by the watch or clock. These are con- 
trivances made to run by and with natural time 

— run by the sun. They are artificial time- 
keepers. Here again we have motion — a 
running in correspondence with the movement 



228 The Exodus From Death. 

of natural bodies. Now, in both cases we have 
the same idea of movement. In the one case 
the apparently rising and setting sun and moon, 
in the other case the running of the watch or 
clock — their moving hands. 

There is in Eternity a Correspondent to this 
idea of Motion in time. Suppose artificial 
time should stop — the watch and clock stop; 
and suppose they are broken and destroyed: 
what then? Does time stop? No. How 
often do watches and clocks stop — how many 
have been destroyed! But still time goes on. 
These artificial time-keepers only represent 
real time in the revolving worlds; and when 
these representatives of time stop, still the 
earth runs on, giving us day and night; the 
moon runs on, giving us months ; the sun rules 
on, dispensing years, centuries, millenniums. 
The stopping of the watch and clock has no 
effect upon original time. When they stop it 
still moves on with rushing velocity above, 
around and beneath us. Now what is the cor- 
respondent of this motion in the rolling worlds ? 
The motion in the artificial clock represented 
motion in the clock of nature. What does 
motion in the clock of nature represent? 

The reign of an eternal Sun. Galileo sat in 
the cathedral of Pisa. While others watched 



Eternity, 229 

the imposing ceremonies, he watched the swing- 
ing lamps. They had been disturbed, and 
were in motion. He studied their motion. 
He made a great discovery. He saw that the 
number of oscillations of a pendulum in a given 
time depended on its length. The longer the 
pendulum, the fewer, the shorter the pendulum, 
the more the vibrations. How did he time 
them ? Not by a watch or clock. There were 
no such time-keepers then. He tested them by 
the natural time-keeper in his bosom — by his 
pulse. They moved to certain pulsations of 
his heart. Now, say that these lamps of Pisa 
are gone — long since their pendulums ceased 
to move. Did their stopping effect the stand- 
ard by which their motion was timed? Did 
they stop Galileo's pulse? No. But did not 
Galileo's pulse stop afterward — when he died ? 
His natural pulse did, but the pulse of his soul, 
back of his fleshly pulse — the pulse of his 
immortal mind beat on, and will beat on for- 
ever. The cessation of the pendulums in the 
cathedral had no more effect upon the pulsa- 
tions of his soul than the stopping of the clock 
has upon the motions of the celestial spheres. 

Now, suppose the great clock of nature 
should stop. What then? Suppose the im- 
mense machinery of the revolving worlds ceases 



230 The Exodus From Death. 

to run, and falls in pieces — what then? Is 
there no correspondent motion behind it ? The 
heavenly system is God's natural time-keeper. 
Does time stop with its dissolution? What 
took place when the watch stopped ? Its artifi- 
cial time stopped, but natural time went on in 
the revolving worlds. But stop them — stop 
the great clock of nature that makes time — 
then what? Natural time stops, but its orig- 
inal does not. As the artificial clock repre- 
sents the reign of the natural sun — runs by it, 
so the natural sun represents and runs by an- 
other sun — there is a Sun behind the sun — 
Eternity's Sun. That is the Sun Isaiah saw. 
That is God — the eternal God. He is the 
Original of this great symbol in the skies, and 
His Life is the original of its motion. His 
supreme reign, glorious Life goes on after "the 
heavens pass away." Their dissolution has no 
more effect upon Eternity as measured by the 
Life of God, than the breaking of the watch 
has upon time as measured by the glowing sun. 
The Sun of Eternity, the Sun ruling over 
eternal Day, is the correlative of the motion in 
the idea of time. 

The Life of God measuring Eternity! 
What an idea this gives us of the order, the 
sublime harmony of the world to come. God 



Eternity. 231 

rules over it. How endless and glorious its 
order ! All the eternal heavens — all the "stars 
shining forever and ever" — moving with the 
Pulse of God ! As He Feels, they feel — as He 
Thinks, they think — as He Moves, they move ! 
This is eternal life and this is heavenly glory. 
Then, indeed, will "the heavens declare the 
glory of God I" Also, what an idea it suggests, 
on the other hand, of the discord of the lost 
world — the anarchy, chaos, misery of eternal 
Night! Existence without God — this is 
death, this is hell! 

II. ETERNITY STUDIED IN THE DIVISION 
OF TIME. 

Division is another element of time. It is 
the points by which time is marked off, and 
reckoned. It is like the punctuation marks in 
composition — the comma, semicolon, colon 
and period. These are the marks dividing 
clauses and sentences, and that govern the 
reader's voice. These marks give the meaning, 
the sense of the writer. Or, the division is like 
the marks of measurement — the rod, furlong, 
mile, league. These divide distance. We 
count by the mile-stones. So division gives us 
the points, the mile-stones of time. Time is 
like the land where we can measure and locate 



232 The Exodus From Death. 

distance. Eternity is like the sea, where no 
points appear to break the immense expanse of 
waters. 

The periods of time. These are the points 
that mark it off. We have points on the clock. 
From one to twelve marks hours; then these 
are subdivided into minutes and seconds. 
From morning till evening marks the day; 
from Monday till Sabbath gives the week ; then 
follow the larger divisions into months, seasons, 
years; and then the still greater periods of 
decades, centuries, millenniums. Also we have 
great historic divisions in the Creation, Flood, 
and Birth of Christ. By these artificial, nat- 
ural and historic points we measure and reckon 
time. These larger periods are mile-stones on 
the highway of the ages. By them the chronol- 
ogist makes his computations. Without them 
we could have no recorded time — all the past 
would be lost. 

The correlates in Eternity of the Periods of 
Time. They are the opposites — the direct 
antitheses. They are endlessness, datelessness, 
everness. Eternity has no dates. We have 
left land, and are now at sea, where there are 
no mile-stones. Eternity has no clock, point- 
ing off its hours; it has no rising and setting 
sun, pointing off its days — its sun never sets ; 



Eternity. 233 

it has no moon measuring off months; it has 
no seasons and years, for it has no revolving 
world. It has no Creation, nor Flood, nor 
Birth of Christ. The immortal mind is now 
engirdled by dateless duration. Looking back 
it can see no farther than in looking forth, for 
there are no points, events on which it can rest, 
and from which reckon. Back and Forth are 
Now, and Now is Eternity. Here great words 
come to the relief and support of the bewil- 
dered thought — it hears: "I am Alpha and 
Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the 
Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, 
the Almighty." Thus we again land on God. 
God, that inhabiteth eternity, is the only object 
now we can see and rest on. His uncreated 
Life, with its unending Being, is the Chronom- 
eter of Eternity. God the Idea of Eternity! 
The thought made the great author of "The 
System of Nature" — Libnitze — "uncover his 
head in adoration." 

John, on Patmos, surrounded by the sea, 
heard the significant words: "It is done. I 
am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the 
end." Did this not mean that the dispensation 
of Time was ended, chronology suspended, and 
"the age of ages" inaugurated? Did it not 
mean the resumption by its Author of the Lease 



234 The Exodus From Death. 

of Time back into His own Being? He 
gathers up and back into Himself all time — 
all dates, periods and ages, and they are swal- 
lowed up in His fathomless, immeasurable 
Existence. Let a line of vessels extend across 
the Atlantic Ocean like a pontoon bridge from 
continent to continent ; then sink them all, and 
the waters, returning, would leave no sign. So 
in Eternity all the ages disappear in the Being 
of God, and leave nothing but the dateless, 
glorious immensity of His Life. This view 
gives us the blessed destiny of Christian hope — 
the soul on the Bosom of God ! The homesick 
spirit — weary of the days, the changes, the 
wrecks of time, now rests on everlasting Love. 
The ransomed soul at home on the eternal 
Bosom of God its Saviour, realizes the fulfill- 
ment, and fulness, and blessedness of its earthly 
song of hope: 

"There I shall bathe my weary soul 
In seas of heavenly rest, 
And not a wave of trouble roll 
Across my peaceful breast." 

But where will lost mind rest in Eternity? 
It has no God. Napoleon Bonaparte is ban- 
ished to St. Helena. He stands with the vast 
ocean lying back, and forth, and around him 
like a slumbering mystery. Life and Time 



Eternity, 235 

are as good as over with him. He can see noth- 
ing behind nor before, as he looks, but the im- 
mensity of waters. He cannot escape his 
surroundings — his sea-girt prison. But he 
can think. They have imprisoned his body, 
but cannot fetter his thought. The eagle that 
soared to the terror of the nations now thinks 
behind his ocean bars. He turns away from 
the trackless waste of waters to find a resting- 
place for his raven mind. There are periods 
in memory. He goes back on them. There 
are two memorable points that chain his weary 
thoughts — they are France and Waterloo. In 
his oceanic exile — fit emblem of Eternity — 
these points are the only things on which his 
great mind can rest. So lost mind, imprisoned 
in eternal darkness, seeks a resting-place for its 
weary thought. Like the raven, it wanders 
over the black immensity that has submerged 
Time. It has its France and Waterloo — its 
Life and Fall. These fix and torture it. Does 
the lost soul ever sing? Have the lips of the 
hopeless spirit any music in them ? Is there a 
weird, wretched miserere sung in the world of 
despair? Then with what forlorn, dismal 
notes they must sing ! What awful pathos lost 
lips must give to the earthly song: 



236 The Exodus From Death. 

" O, where shall rest be found, 
Rest for the weary soul? " 

It can find no rest save on its torturing 
Prance and Waterloo. In its Eternity, the 
lost soul has no God for its rest. Its Life and 
Fall, its France and Waterloo, are the only 
resting-places it has in its eternal misery! 
And how they torture forever 1 

III. ETERNITY STUDIED IN THE DURATION 
OF TIME. 

Duration is the length of periods — the 
space lying between them. It is continuous. 
Duration is relative and absolute. Relative 
duration is in comparison with something else 
— some standard. The violet is of short dura- 
tion as compared with the oak ; the oak is short 
lived as compared with the mountain; man's 
life is long as compared with the butterfly's 
life ; but his life is short as compared with the 
enduring mountain. Bayard Taylor says he 
felt an awe, a reverence, as he stood before the 
Pyramids — those mute sentinels of the ages. 
There they had stood defying the drifting 
sands and ravages of time — stood while em- 
pires had come and gone, great dynasties had 
arisen and fallen. He felt the brevity of life, 



Eternity. 237 

even of the generations, in the presence of these 
granite witnesses of the immense past. 

Absolute duration is independent of any con- 
dition, of any comparison. It is duration 
infinite and unending. It is eternal duration. 

The duration of Time. That is, its contin- 
uance from beginning to end, including all of 
its periods. Its measurement covering its past, 
present and future. An hour is sixty minutes 
long, a day twenty-four hours long, a week 
seven days long, a month thirty days long, a 
year twelve months long. The revolving hands 
on the clock measure off the hours, the revolv- 
ing earth the days, the revolving moon the 
months, the oscillations of the great pendulum 
holding the earth to the sun gives the seasons, 
and the revolutions of the earth round the sun 
measures the years. These periods are all in- 
cluded in time, and end with it. Time is to 
be no more. With the end of time comes Eter- 
nity. What will measure off its duration? 
What clock will measure its hours? What 
earth and moon its days and months? What 
sun its years ? How will we then tell the time 
of day? the time of the year? the time of 
the century? The great pendulum that moved 
the machinery of the clock of nature has 
stopped. The chronometer of the skies has dia- 



238 The Exodus From Death. 

appeared with the dissolving system of worlds. 
We must now turn to Galileo's time-keeper — 
to the endless, everlasting time-keeper in the 
beating heart. 

The immeasurable duration of Eternity. 
The pulse of immortal mind will never stop. 
When the earth and the heavens stop, it will 
still beat on. When the temple of the mortal 
house dissolves, and its strange chandelier of 
light goes out, and its vibrating pendulum 
stops, still in Abraham's bosom above, or Dives' 
bosom below, the pulse of the deathless spirit is 
beating on. Its pulse is all it will now have to 
measure Eternity by — to tell the time of the 
measureless days, years, centuries, eons of 
Eternity. But this chronometer of life in the 
immortal bosom must have its great Correla- 
tive. This it has in its Creator — in God 
"that inhabiteth eternity." In the Bosom of 
God is the uncreated Archetype of life. Here 
again we are brought back to God — to His 
Life — to the Pulse-beats of His eternal Heart, 
as the time-keeper of Eternity. By the Pulse 
of the Life of God, the duration of Eternity is 
measured. 

To impress the minds of their hearers with 
the unending duration of Eternity, the fathers 
used this illustration : Let an eagle take a grain 



Eternity. 239 

of sand from the earth every thousand years, 
and carry it to some other planet. How long 
would it take the eagle, bearing but one grain, 
and that only every thousand years, to move 
the earth ? Billions upon billions of years pass 
slowly before the mind. But it can see that 
finally the end will come, and the earth be re- 
moved. But this does not give us Eternity ; it 
only aids the mind in thinking of its immeasur- 
able duration. In the illustration there are 
points of measurement — in Eternity there are 
none. There are no eagles, no sand, no years 
in Eternity. There is nothing there to meas- 
ure by but the pulse of immortal life in the 
creature, and its glorious Original on the 
Throne — in Isaiah's unsetting Sun. 

Then the duration immeasurable of Eternity 
is to be reckoned, on the one hand, by the life — 
the pulsations of joy and glory in the saved, or 
reckoned on the other hand, by the death — the 
pulsations of woe and shame in the lost. See 
the lost world standing with its look of despair, 
trying to catch some ray in the east foretelling 
the end of its long Night. See it standing 
holding its pulse of pain to measure off the 
duration of eternal death! Again it may be 
asked, do they ever sing in the world of endless 
misery? If they sing at all there, they must 



240 The Exodus From Death. 

sing what they feel. Then they must send 
reverberating through the cavernous realms of 
despair the song unheeded on earth : 

11 There is a death whose pang* 
Outlasts the fleeting breath — 
O, what eternal terrors hang 
Around the second death!" 

Think of that song rising forever in wailings 
of wretchedness from millions of lost spirits ! 

But Isaiah is speaking of the Eternity of the 
saints — the spiritual Israel. "Thy sun shall 
no more go down ; neither shall thy moon with- 
draw itself: for the Lord shall be thine ever- 
lasting light, and the days of thy mourning 
shall be ended." It is an Eternity of blessed- 
ness. "There shall be no night there" — the 
Sun of life, and joy, and glory shall never go 
down. Endless Day, endless Joy, endless 
Glory! What melody must then go up from 
ransomed lips forever! The redeemed will 
sing. It will be an Eternity of Alleluiahs. 
"I heard a great voice of much people in 
heaven saying, Alleluiah ; Salvation, and glory, 
and honor, and power unto the Lord our God. 
And again they said, Alleluiah." The conflict 
passed — sorrow, sighing, pain, death, passed 
— Time passed — Eternity, Eternity come ! 
The eternal God the Sun of the soul: "The 



Eternity. 241 

city had no need of the sun, neither of the 
moon, to shine in it : for the glory of God did 
lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." 
Eternity — immeasurable, graspless, glorious 2 
Eternity ! 

" Great God, a creature cannot tell 
How such a thing can be: 
I only pray that I may dwell 

That long", long time with Thee." 



242 The Exodus From Death. 



Hope for Infants Fallen Asleep. 



" But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, 
concerning them which are asleep; that ye sorrow not, 
even as others which have no hope." — 1 Thess. 4: 13. 

" I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." 
2 Sam. 12: 23. 

DEATH is a mystery. The death of in- 
fants is a profound mystery; it is the 
darkest form of death; it is staggering. 
An innocent, helpless child grappling in agony 
with the monster death, is one of the deepest, 
niost trying problems with which we have to 
deal. We meet with this problem everywhere. 
In every graveyard are infants sleeping. 
Homes are continually stricken and darkened 
by their death. When we meet with this sad- 
dest form of death in children, where shall we 
look for light? where for comfort? 

1. Vain sources of information and comfort 
Ordinary death is too much for the teachers 
around us. The death of a little child con- 
founds all the lips about us. But the more the 
mystery, the greater the longing to know. Let 



Hope for Infants Fallen Asleep. 243 

us not go wrong in seeking light upon the 
problem of death. 

Nature affords no light, nor comfort. 
The state of the dead, especially that of infants, 
is not mentioned, even remotely intimated, in 
her lessons. The bereaved look within and 
around to find some solace for the aching heart, 
but all is dark and silent. They stand over the 
grave, and hear no response to the ancient ques- 
tion hopeless humanity has been putting to the 
seers of Nature: "Where are my dead?" 
Neither the prophecies, records nor analogies 
of Nature give any answer. She has no vision, 
nor syllable, nor likeness that meets the case. 
The mystery is too profound for her. She has 
no solution for it. The depths and the heights 
say: "It is not in us." Bereaved, weeping 
humanity has been crowding the courts of 
Nature for six thousand years, listening to the 
gospel of "the things that are seen," and no 
"life and immortality" has been heard. Under 
the agonies of forlorn grief the bereaved heart 
has sent its priestly thoughts around the shrines 
of planets and suns, asking: "Where are my 
loved dead?" But the messengers return pale 
and dumb. Nature knows nothing about your 
loved child passed away. 

Equally true is it that Reason offers no hope 



244 The Exodus From Death. 

to the bereaved. That is, reason without God, 
or his teachings. Mere reason is a vain coun- 
sellor in the hour of death, and as vain a com- 
forter in the house of mourning. The weep- 
ing, desolate mother sends for the high priest 
of learning, the profound sage, and says to 
him : "Where is my dead child ?" If he dares 
to answer at all, it is in vague hypotheses that 
chill and torture the heart. The wisdom of 
this world is brought to naught when it stands 
before death. And it is utterly at sea when it 
looks toward the great Unseen. The future 
state of our dead is not worked out by thought. 
In heathen lands, and under the darkness of 
unbelief in Christian lands, they are, and have 
ever been, thinking over their dead, but "with- 
out hope." They lay away their dead amidst 
a starless, rayless night, that has no glorious 
Morrow. They turn away from the graves of 
their loved dead, with hearts sinking under the 
heavy, dreadful, crushing "Forever and For- 
ever" of despair! 

2. Considerations in the light of Revelation. 
Light has come, and under its common influ- 
ence and guidance we think of the state of in- 
fants fallen asleep. We are not yet on what 
the Bible directly teaches, but on what we think 



Hope for Infants Fallen Asleep. 245 

under the light it affords — on considerations 
that support hope for infants asleep. 

Universal belief. That it is well with those 
dying in infancy is a doctrine universally held. 
In this opinion the great mass of Christians 
have always been agreed. While they have 
differed about other matters of faith, the fewest 
of them, if any, have believed that infants who 
die are lost. And this unanimity of sentiment 
is confined to no particular time, but pertains 
to all times. All the creeds that have come 
down to us from the past, and those of the 
present, unite, when they speak at all on the 
question, in the declaration that infants die in 
the Saviour. There must be something in 
this. While it does not prove anything, still 
it strongly supports the hope for infants asleep. 

The character of God. This is of much ac- 
count in determining the question. If God is 
good and merciful, it gives hope. If He is 
unfeeling and malevolent, there is little hope. 
In praying for Sodom that it be spared for the 
sake of the righteous, Abraham said: "Shall 
not the Judge of all the earth do right V 9 This 
is equal to an affirmation of the divine rectitude 
in the government of the world. It is equiv- 
alent to an inspired declaration that God will 
do right. 



246 The Exodus From Death. 

The Lord, in answer to Moses' prayer, de- 
clared his name: "The Lord, the Lord God, 
merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abun- 
dant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for 
thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression 
and sin, and that will by no means clear the 
guilty." This is a declaration, by God himself, 
of his character. He is adorable in goodness, 
compassion and mercy. This is the God into 
whose hands dying infants fall. 

God said to Jonah, who was displeased and 
angry because Nineveh was spared — notwith- 
standing he himself had had great pity for a 
gourd : "Should not I spare Nineveh that great 
city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand 
persons that cannot discern between their right 
hand and their left hand; and also much 
cattle?" Here is a God whose compassion is 
so great that he spares a city on account of 
those who do not know right or wrong — even 
on account of brutes. It is inconceivable that 
such a God as is here, and in other Scriptures 
revealed, would punish infants who die. 

The moral state of infants. This is to be 
taken into account. Are they sinners? No. 
Are they sinless? No. They are fallen — 
have inherited depraved natures. What do the 
Scriptures say in regard to their moral state? 



Hope for Infants Fallen Asleep. 247 

Job asks : "Who can bring a clean thing out of 
an unclean? not one." He means that, from 
a fallen ancestry there can be no pure descend- 
ants. David said: "I was shapen in iniquity; 
and in sin did my mother conceive me." He 
was born depraved. Paul says: "By the one 
man's (Adam) disobedience, many were made 
sinners." That is, the effect of Adam's sin in 
a depraved nature, is entailed upon his pos- 
terity. Then children are not holy. Neither 
are they, on the other hand, guilty. To be holy, 
they must be pure in nature; but they are de- 
praved. To be guilty, they must be trans- 
gressors; but they have broken no law. In- 
fants are innocent — that is, they know no sin 
by voluntary, conscious transgression. The 
God who forgives and receives the penitent 
sinner, who pardons the guilty, will have com- 
passion, assuredly, on infants who have done no 
sin. It would seem impossible to think other- 
wise. 

3. The direct teachings of Revelation. What 
do the Scriptures teach as to the future state of 
infants who die ? They are remarkably silent. 
But they are silent in regard to the future state 
of infants for the same reason that they are 
silent in regard to their present salvation. 
Nothing is said about their salvation for the 



248 The Exodus From Death. 

reason that the Scriptures do not deal with 
their case — they are not addressed in God's 
message. The call of the Scriptures is to sin- 
ners, and their promises to believers. Infants 
are neither. They have not sinned, therefore 
cannot repent, nor believe. Hence, but little 
is said of them. Enough, however, is said to 
satisfy us as to their future state. David's 
words in regard to his dead child seem to be 
decisive as to its state. He says : "I shall go 
to him, but he shall not return to me." These 
words surely teach that David's child had gone 
where David expected to go — gone to God and 
the place of the blessed. Paul's words to the 
Thessalonians "concerning them which are 
asleep," certainly include more than their adult 
dead. Many of them had infants asleep. 
They were concerned about them. Did not 
Paul include them in his words of comfort? 
If not, he would have specified their exception. 
But he did not do this. We, therefore, con- 
clude that the apostle meant that those who had 
infants asleep were not to sorrow without hope. 
And the Saviour's words in regard to children 
are touching and precious. He says: "Suffer 
the little children to come unto me ; and forbid 
them not : for of such is the kingdom of God." 
These words do not mean that little children 



Hope for Infants Fallen Asleep. 249 

are Christians, and constitute the kingdom of 
God, but that those who are Chrstians and com- 
pose the kingdom of God, are like children in 
innocent, trustful character. "Of such," 
means, of such like. But while the words do 
not mean that children are now saved, they 
imply and teach, without doubt, that they will 
be saved. Our Lord would not thus use chil- 
dren to illustrate the character of his people, if 
children are to be lost. 

Yes, enough is said in the Scriptures to 
give hope for infants fallen asleep. The sor- 
row of bereaved hearts is illumined and sweet- 
ened by the light and comfort of their teachings. 
Our Lord said : "I am the resurrection and the 
life." Are not these great words broad enough 
to embrace children ? While we know that he 
is "the resurrection and the life" to believers, 
may we not hope that he is to be the same to 
little children whom he received and blessed? 
By his atoning death he not only becomes the 
Saviour of believers, but becomes, we hope, the 
Saviour of all infants dying before they sin. 
Then infants, as well as believers, "sleep in 
him," and are to be raised in a future day. 

In view of the considerations offered in sup- 
port of hope for infants, and of the teaching of 
the Scriptures in regard to them, we conclude 



250 The Exodus From Death. 

that they sleep in Jesus' care. But is anything 
done for dying infants ? If so, what ? Do not 
the words of our Lord, "Except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," teach 
that spiritual life, in adults and infants — in 
all, is necessary, indispensably necessary to the 
kingdom of God? Then what is done in the 
case of infants who die, to fit them for heaven ? 

4. The gracious work in the case of dying 
infants. Something must be done for them. 
Fallen natures carried to heaven would develop 
there just as they develop here — into sinners. 
Some work is necessary. Not to prevent their 
condemnation. Infants could not be lost in the 
same way that adults are. We read: "The 
soul that sinneth, it shall die." Also: "He 
that believeth not, shall be damned." But in- 
fants have done neither; hence, are neither 
sinners nor unbelievers. Yet something must 
be done for them. What is it ? 

Are they saved in dying? It is written: 
"He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be 
saved." But infants have not believed, nor 
can they believe. Then, properly speaking, 
they are not saved. The guilty, on confession, 
are saved; but infants are not guilty — they 
are guiltless. But they are not holy, as we 
have seen, and cannot live in the presence of 



Hope for Infants Fallen Asleep. 251 

a holy God. The trouble is with their unclean, 
unholy natures. They need to be cleansed 
from an impure nature — need, so far as is 
possible with an infant, to be horn over. Then 
infants are purified, or sanctified in death. 
This is the gracious work done for them. And 
these terms are the best that can be used in the 
statement of the work. The sanctification of 
the infant must be in the hour and dissolution 
of death. ITo doubt it is the special office of 
the Holy Spirit to see to dying infants. Their 
need — cleansing — comes under his gracious 
work. ISTone enter the kingdom of heaven 
below, or on high, except through Him. He is 
the great sanctifier. Jesus sent Him to take 
away the stains of sin. And all children dying 
in infancy, we believe, are given to Him that 
He may purify, and present them faultless 
before the throne of glory. Have you lost a 
child ? The Spirit was present when the loved 
one was passing away, and took it pure and 
stainless to the skies. Then think of your 
child, not as dead, but as in the care of the 
Saviour, to be brought back with him when he 
comes. 

But the bereaved heart may inquire, Why is 
life taken so early ? why is my child cut down 
in infancy? Do not the Scriptures teach that 



252 The Exodus From Death. 

long life is a blessing? and that early death 
is a curse ? Would we not have all live, believe 
and labor, then enter into rest? These are 
very natural questions. A sufficient answer to 
them is in the following from a profound 
writer: "The Mosaic age depended, to a great 
degree, upon temporal awards. Hence the 
earthly hue given to its commandments, and the 
earthly philosophy pervading its proverbs. 
But we have entered another age — an age that 
looks mainly for its rewards into eternity. 
Christianity alone hallows an early death. 
Paganism bewailed it as an unmitigated calam- 
ity ; Judaism contemplated it as an inscrutable 
mystery ; but the Gospel consecrates it with its 
sacred benediction as the speedy beginning of a 
higher and happier life." 

Faith can look on the mystery of death — 
death in its worst form — death in an infant, 
and say with the Shunamite of old: "It is 
well" — it is well with the child. 

" There are tiny mounds where the hopes of earth 

Were laid 'neath the tear-wet mold, 
But the light that paled at the stricken hearth 

Was joy to the Upper Fold: 
Oh, the white stone beareth a new name now 

That never on earth was told, 
And the tender Shepherd doth guard with care 

The lambs of the Upper Fold." 



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